PURE took me five years to photograph. It's interesting to think that some of the newborn babies were just starting school when the book came out.

Well, obviously with a book this size (123 new images), I wanted to be really pleased with every single one. This is the first book that I have been able to shoot almost without any deadline, which was very liberating in a way. I felt no pressure at all. In the publishing world, there are always timetables, which I understand, but with PURE the parameters really were just "when you think you have it, let us know", which was great. What a lot of people also don't realize is that the 123 images selected for the book were chosen from almost 250 images which I shot specifically with PURE in mind. The culling process was difficult at times, but made the end product so much more powerful in terms of quality imagery.

This is a great question. Because I often think about the fact that my photographic life has evolved so publicly, and when I return sometimes to look at Down In The Garden, which was my first coffee table book, it's obvious how much my work has become more simple, but also more sophisticated. This is a natural process with any artist, but at times, I have found it very difficult to progress artistically in such a public way. That's not to say that I don't think Down In The Garden is not great. It's a wonderful book, and I'm very proud of it. But the project was so enormous initially, involving so much propping etc that it was a year or so after it was published before I could actually go back and revisit the book without feeling stressed! I don't feel that way about PURE.

PURE to me contains a very simple message - deceptively simple, to be honest. It's about the absolute promise of a newborn. It's about the powerful potential of a child from the very day they are born. All of the babies in PURE are capable of being very special human beings if they are nurtured in the right way. I'm photographing them at the very beginning of their lives, before they have been exposed to any outside influences at all, especially the negative ones. I think that's something really special.

When you're looking at PURE - the babies could be any nationality, couldn't they? It's such a shame when you see little children growing up in some of the most troubled regions of the world - so angry and with so much hatred at such a tender age. That's just the result of total influence by adults, not what the child was like at birth. This might be considered a very simplistic approach to the world's troubles, but it's also a simple truth.

Very important actually. And what I find the most difficult is to achieve absolute simplicity in an image, when the temptation is there to complicate the issues. It's the old saying - "the hardest thing in the world is to create something simple".

I think that there is no other time in a woman's life when she is more "honestly" beautiful. In a world that is constantly deluged by artificial notions of "beauty", in PURE it gave me a great deal of pleasure to actually photograph what is "real" beauty. Pregnant women should be celebrated - it's really a miracle isn't it? I remember the moment when I first found out that I was pregnant, and I couldn't believe it - it was like a miracle. Then, of course, the actual birth of a baby is an experience that there are no words for.

I don't think that I favor twins in any particular way, but I do think that multiple births are something special. It must be wonderful to have a twin, or even be one of a set of triplets for instance. In PURE there are two images of triplets, one where there are three little girls, Charlee B, Jaclyn and Susanna, all identical, which is quite rare. They are now 3 years old, and it's amazing to see them running around and becoming little people in their own right. In the second image, also of three little girls, Jade, Aimee and Hannah, they are still inside their mother Rachel's tummy, which is the most extraordinary round shape - like a lovely, big ripe melon. Wonderful!

This comment has been made often by people when they first see the book. I like that. Pretty much all of the babies in PURE are sleeping, and they are all mainly newborns. By newborn, I mean under 4 weeks of age, where babies will generally sleep anywhere, as long as they are comfortable and aren't hungry!

You know, the atmosphere in my studio is very calm - not at all chaotic, as people would naturally expect with babies. Many of the mothers who bring their babies to the studio comment afterwards that their experience there was so wonderful, not what they expected in terms of chaos etc. This is very important to me, because the reason you don't see a lot of newborn babies in commercial photography is that mothers do not naturally bring newborn babies to photographic studios. These women have just recently given birth - I want to make them feel as special as their babies - it's what they deserve. They are often so busy at home with a newborn that there isn't a great deal of time to spend on themselves. So we go to a lot of trouble to make them feel welcome and relaxed. I love the fact that they believe in what I'm doing - that so many people just naturally understand my message.

Probably a sense that we're definitely living in a better world than we all presently think we are, and that there is hope for the future.

I think that Until Now, which was my second coffee table book after Down In The Garden introduced people to my more simple, classic images - sort of eased them away from flower pots and heavy propping, into some of my black and white images for instance, which I had always been shooting, but there was no logical reason for them to be included in Down In The Garden. I found this a little frustrating artistically in the time period between Down In The Garden and Until Now because some of the earliest images I was shooting (before Down In The Garden was published) were simple, classic black and whites, but I didn't have a forum for them at the time.

Absolutely - naturally not all of them, because it's hard to keep track of so many babies, but quite a lot. The mothers know that we love to see the children as they grow older. We are always receiving photographs from all over the world of children who were in my earlier images. I love the stories they tell, in particular, about how they take one of my books to school for "show and tell". It's great. In fact one of my favorite stories is about a little girl from Down In The Garden whose image was on an episode of "Friends". She went to school the next day sooooo excited to tell her teacher that "she was on 'Friends'" and the poor teacher didn't quite know whether it was a little girl's active imagination, or whether it was the truth!

Simple - babies are a universal language. The babies in PURE come from many different backgrounds and ethnic origins. Yet with all their diversity, they are all babies - all loved by their parents - all having the same inherent potential to become "a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven". Each and every one of them, at this stage in their lives, has the capacity for anything. Each is undeniably "a marvel".

All of the images in PURE are significant to me in one way or another, but as a collection, the images of pregnant women, I think, are great. I hope they give women everywhere a confidence that at any stage of pregnancy they are all, in their own special way, absolutely beautiful. I also wanted these images to be honest, strong and hopeful - I think I've achieved this.

The reason why I prefer to shoot in New Zealand is that my studio has been custom built, to make the mothers and babies very comfortable. My studio is very baby friendly, all of the staff love babies, and whenever we have babies in the studio, I make sure that everything totally revolves around them. This means that any technical issues need to be taken care of long before the baby comes onto the scene. I use life-sized dolls to perfect my lighting for instance, and all the adjusting of lights is done in the days before the shoot. It's just not anything like photographing adults.

For instance, I have a special room set aside, which we call the "Mother's Room", where mothers can have privacy - lots of big comfortable sofas and change tables handy etc. It's very important to me that they feel as special as their newborns. I know what it's like to be the mother of a newborn, and especially when you have a toddler to take care of at home as well, there isn't much time in the first few weeks of a baby's life to make yourself feel special as well. Caring for a newborn is sometimes just sheer hard work, not to mention the lack of sleep!

So we go all out to make a big fuss over the mothers - they deserve to feel extra special at this time in their lives.

As far as the babies are concerned - well, I've been photographing them for many years now, and I think I know how to make babies of any age feel comfortable. Newborns have trouble controlling their body temperature for instance, so my studio is always very warm (in fact it can be uncomfortably warm for adults!) when I am photographing naked newborns.

I know that older babies (who are mainly around 6 - 8 months of age) need to have their mothers close by. They don't like to be inundated with strange people all at once, and they don't really prefer being around too many other babies - they find it a little overwhelming.

We have a plentiful supply of changing areas, diapers, pacifiers, and toys - everything that a baby would need so their visit to my studio is a fun and relaxing experience. In addition to also making the mothers feel special, it's important to me that they know how much I appreciate them making the effort to come to the studio.

I'm never happier professionally than when I'm working in the studio. Unfortunately these days, I have so many other distractions. Particularly, in the past couple of years, I have been closely involved in the design of a baby clothing collection. I work with so many more people than I ever did before, but I always try to maintain a focus on my core message - my love of babies. I will always essentially be a photographer, and I will always love photographing babies.

Not surprised actually, it's more that the universal response is so heartwarming. As I've said before, babies are a universal language, aren't they? What I particularly love is the way people seem to find that they can automatically connect with me, show me photographs of their children - it's as if they feel they know me through my work. That's great - because it means that my message is getting through.

I travel a lot, which, as everybody knows, is quite tiring sometimes, and it's always a lovely surprise when somebody, a perfect stranger, calls you aside and says "would you like to see a photo of my baby" - of course I would! We're sharing a common language, and babies make everybody more human, more connected.

I never really started out to intentionally be a voice for babies - that just happened in the course of time.

I think my main message through my work is that every child has such enormous potential if they are nurtured, loved and encouraged to believe in themselves from a very early age. Children need to know that they are valued and special, each and every one of them. We need to protect them and constantly reinforce to them that they are capable of being whoever they would want to be.

To most people, this would sound so perfectly logical, but there are so many children in this world who never hear this message - never hear it at all. In fact, they hear just the opposite.

I would like to make a significant difference in my lifetime in the area of the prevention of child abuse and neglect. My images always deal with the positive aspects of babies - their perfect beauty if you will - but when I look at a newborn, I always think about their potential at the very beginning of their life.

One of the black and white images in PURE is of a line of newborn babies - all under three weeks of age - in fact, the image runs over two double pages. At the shoot, we were all talking about what it would be like to get all of these babies together again in 20 years. All of them the same age - to see where their lives have taken them - I think that's a fascinating concept.

Especially in these new times in which we are all living, this wonderful quote from Pablo Casals speaks volumes. Mr. Casals so eloquently described for me the reasons why I photograph babies. I just love this quote, and read it often - it strikes a chord every single time.

Not really - I love them all. I particularly enjoyed the experience of working with all of the pregnant women who are featured in PURE. It was such a great atmosphere in the studio when we were shooting - but then the atmosphere is always great when I'm shooting. I just adore being around babies - who wouldn't? I loved the travel involved in shooting for PURE. Even though I prefer to shoot in my custom designed studio in Auckland, it was wonderful to meet parents in both Los Angeles and New York who came to the shoots that I had there. It was great to be able to reinforce the fact that babies are such a universal language!

I particularly love New York. Some of the first images I created for PURE nearly five years ago were shot in New York. While we were in the planning stages for the shoot, I was told not to expect New Yorkers to be as forthcoming with their babies as they were in New Zealand for instance. But we found that to be totally the opposite!