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You all know by now about Anne's Limited Edition Print series that are available for sale, but many of you may not know the background to the particular print. So below, we have included some information that went into creating the Angel photograph.

Anne photographed Jonti (also published as Jonti as an Angel) as part of her Angels series.

This series was photographed in San Francisco and Auckland, in late 1995 and early 1996 and appeared in calendars in 1997 and 1998. Anne also has talked about this image in her autobiography 'A Labour of Love'.

Anne says about this image:-"The stone angel prop itself was impressive. It was light and had been especially carved our of one huge block of foam with a reinforced steel dish incorporated into the hands to make the structure strong. I had photographed my assistant’s hands beforehand in exactly this position, as a model for the sculpture, and Dawn, who has made all of my props for many years, did a wonderful job of bringing the sculpture to life.

It is always difficult to find ready-made props to accommodate the special needs of babies, and therefore we take a great deal of time and trouble to make suitable, safe and comfortable props for the individual shoots. My dilemma is always what to do with them afterwards.

Jonti is such a lovely name, that one of my staff members who became pregnant in 2002 also named her baby Jonti."

More from Dawn about the making of the stone angel prop.

"Hi, I’m Dawn McGowan, Anne’s prop designer and fabricator. I am working on her current new book project Beginnings in Sydney, and have been with Anne since the days of 'Down in the Garden' in 1995.

I carved the stone angel out of a solid block of polyurethane foam, which is creamy yellow colour, and has a fine, slightly grainy texture. The first rough shape was made with a handsaw, then the fine details were shaped with smaller knives (the serrated kitchen variety) of various sizes. The piece was finally smoothed with sandpaper. The block of polyurethane was about 50cm deep, and I carved it to a depth of about 25cm. Only the front was carved – I didn’t have to make an entire freestanding angel. Nor did I have to make the angels’ head or feet. The idea was always that the angel would be shown from the knees to the shoulders. That way, Jonti would be in the middle, and large enough to be seen clearly.

The finished sculpture was sealed with cream acrylic paint, then touched up with greys and browns to give the feel of weathered stone. The carving was actually quite shallow, so the impression of depth was given by exaggerating the shadows with dark paint." - Dawn McGowan.

If you are finding this information interesting, we will be bring you more details regarding the "all new" images in Anne's book Beginnings, as we countdown to the release date on 10.10.10

More soon!