Anna Quindlen is a famous Pulitzer Prize–winning author. For several years, she wrote a column for The New York Times called Public and Private. One day she would write about world affairs and the next day she would write about what the other mothers in her baby group were talking about. Anyone who read Anna’s column knew Anna loved babies.

I had a set of baby photographs and needed a writer. Four women in my life independently suggested that Anna Quindlen was perfect. I knew somebody who knew somebody and I got her home telephone number. I cold-called her. It went something like this:

“Anna, my name is Nick Kelsh. We’ve never met. We have mutual friends.” (To quote Huckleberry Finn, “That was a stretcher.”) “I have a set of photographs,” I said.

Please understand that Anna is a lovely person. She did try to give me the heave-ho, however.

“I’m sure they’re perfectly wonderful photographs. I couldn’t possibly take on another project,” she said.

I came back with, “Could you just look at the pictures?”

I heard a sigh and just to get rid of me she said, “Sure, I’ll look at the pictures.”

We were on the phone for all of 45 seconds. I never even got around to telling her they were pictures of babies. I FedEx’d her ten prints and the next day she sent me one of my all-time favorite emails. It went something like this: (Actually, it was much better written than this. She is, after all, Anna Quindlen.)

“Why didn’t you tell me they were pictures of babies? Of course I have to do this project. When do we start?”

Right from the start, she totally got what this was all about. Close-ups of angelic bodies through the eyes of a parent. Anna and I both knew that when you have a baby of your own it’s like seeing a human being for the first time.

In the end we did two books together — Naked Babies and Siblings. We were on Oprah! and The Today Show a couple of times each.

This is one of the original photographs I sent Anna. It pretty much sums up the feeling for the whole project — an attempt to take a new look at timeless perfection.