My Cool Kitchen: Behind The Scenes By Jane Field-Lewis

I’m excitedly getting ready for the launch of my new book later this week - my cool kitchen - and it got me thinking about the process of making each book and how myself, the photographer - Richard - and everyone else who contributes work so well as a team to bring together a treasure trove of inspirations.

The final part of the process is for us to meet with Emily, a member of my team, who is based in Paris. Although working by phone and email is a wonderful thing, I find that there are certain times and tasks to do when most productive t actually be sitting next to the person. The image is of us working at Emily’s kitchen table.

She has a lovely flat which she shares with her film stills photographer husband and gorgeous daughter Alice, near the canal St Martin. Her apartment is carved out of an old carpenters workshop, which they bought and renovated themselves. They have a delightful open-plan space with high ceilings and an easy atmosphere. I find it to be a powerful place to work, to concentrate and be creative so I always value the time I spend there.

The ‘my cool kitchen..’ photographer, Richard, and I were going through the editing process for the pictures in the book. This is no small task as we had literally thousands to get through until we confirmed our final layout. Throughout, we all have our opinions, and it is always an issue of choosing exactly the right selection of images to tell the ‘story’ in the text. It is the story of the place itself, together with conveying the atmosphere and the human details, that makes the spreads in the book flow.

Sitting at Emily’s table just works for us all. We are happy in the space together, drinking too many espresso’s in little French-style duralex glasses, while nipping out to the bakery just outside her courtyard door for snacks. Let’s just say it’s a pretty good way of getting through what could otherwise be an overwhelming task.

I’m very lucky to have the support of such a cool team to work with. Other peoples opinions are good, and it helps keep a balance on the flow of the book as a whole. After all, our aim is to do the best job we can possibly do to make the book an enjoyable and inspirational read, as well as a feast for the eyes… and together we do just that.

‘my cool kitchen’ is available from Amazon.

If you would like to dip into a chapter of the book then you can find one here: Chapter Sampler

Picture credits: Richard Maxted