Tilde studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, but her journey in photography began much earlier. As a toddler of a professional photographer, she was often stagged in tutus or with a finger in the nose. Growing older, she helped lug equipment to places like Tijuana, where her father was basing a children's book. Then in her teens she completed several photojournalism assignments abroad of her own, through children's organizations such as Compassion and other orphan relief agencies. My First Ballet Class is her third children's book to photograph. Her own experiences as a child model have taught her that you can't capture the magic of childhood unless the subjects are free to truly be themselves.