Behind the Cover Pictures: Nanny and Child As part of our most recent cover article, the magazine published a series of portraits of nannies and the children they care for, taken by the photographer Michele Asselin, a longtime contributor whose subjects here have ranged from Mike Huckabee to the poet Paul Muldoon to Chancer the therapy dog. Asselin began her project, ""Full-Time Preferred,"" about two years ago, after her first child, Simone, was born. ""I started working again when she was about 4 or 5 months old, and my mom helped me through a couple shoots, and then I decided I needed someone to take care of Simone on a more regular basis,"" Asselin says. The experience of seeing her daughter ""fall in love"" with someone else was the spark that got her going. ""I felt very grateful for this woman, but there was also a lot of heartbreak and really complicated feelings to see your baby who thinks of you only as a mother bond in such an intimate way with somebody else."" To find her subjects - Asselin photographed more than 20 baby-sitters and the children they watch - she placed advertisements online and with parenting groups. ""My initial relationship was with the mother,"" she says. ""Then it became a three-way discussion."" For the shoots themselves, however, she asked to photograph the nannies and children without parents present, so her pictures could capture ""how they actually related in the absence of the mother."" Inspired by classical madonna-and-child imagery, Asselin used heightened and dramatic lighting to call attention to the intimate gestures of her subjects. Because she wanted those moments to feel genuine, she tried on her set to fade into the background. ""Some of the nannies were able to completely forget the camera, and others were more mindful of it, but the children certainly did."" When a grown-up pays attention to them, Asselin says, children ""really get lost in that, especially when it's someone they really, really love."" After she started photographing her subjects, Asselin began interviewing the nannies and mothers about their experiences. She now envisions these conversations as an integral part of ""Full-Time Preferred,"" enabling viewers to hear her subjects in their own voices. Excerpts from these conversations can be heard online. Asselin intended to include her own nanny, Delma, in the project, since she provided the original inspiration. And she did photograph Delma with Simone, Asselin's daughter, who was not quite 2 at the time. That experience was different, though - ""because,"" she says, ""the mom was in the room.""