The Coco Chanel Suite at the Hotel Ritz in Paris

I have been very distracted this week  - you know the one, not sleeping, over tired, brain racing at a million miles per hour, not eating (ok... I can always eat, there would have to be some seriously diabolical circumstances to curb my appetite) because I am working towards the deadline of a new book to be be published in November. 

Until a few years ago I never really understood the book making process or how much work goes on behind the scenes to arrive at the finished product. I guess if the truth be told, I never thought much about it at all and as a serious book lover that was probably very remiss on my part. I was happy to browse in book shops, flick through pages, buy or borrow the ones I loved and read the written word when I could. I never stopped to think about what was not in the book, and by that I mean the words of the author that had been edited and the photographs that never made it into the final pages. 

Editing is the hardest part of a book project because for the author every word written is personal, well though out and more often than not from the heart; for the photographer every shot is a magical moment in time, a chance to capture what only they see through the lens. A book starts life in the imagination and with much thought, hard work and creativity becomes something that one lives, breathes and talks for many months - years even. That is why choosing what makes it and what doesn't is almost impossible; thank goodness for editors.

Like all good things in life there are limits to how much you can have - a book is no different, there are a finite number of pages. My problem with editing is that I could go on and on about France until your eyes glaze over and you are begging for mercy; for me there will never be sufficient pages to write my thoughts or enough photographs to show you what I love so dearly. Working for nearly two years on a project means you become attached to every paragraph and every image - it is impossible to see clearly and be unbiased. I have always found it very easy to know what I like or don't like, to make decisions, but this week I became one of those woman who could decide nothing. This surprised me as I always consider myself a little too certain about my taste; to find myself incapable of making firm choices was very strange but the time had come. Decisions must be made as the printing deadline waits for no man. 

Trimming the words was somehow easier for me than loosing a photograph. My editor has a way of clarifying my thoughts, of understanding which part of the text is integral to the story and that which is not; she is a maestro at cleaning up poor grammar. But having to decide one image over another when both are so dear to the heart is tougher stuff - that is why the designer, the poor soul who gets to make these impossible calls, is so important. They are unbiased and clear headed in a way I can never be and for that I am extremely grateful. They spend their working hours trying to co-ordinate thousands of words and hundreds of photographs into a few hundred pages to tell a story. The editor and the designer are the unsung heroes with no public face but without them - well, this girl would be in a real muddle. 

So this rambling brings me to the Coco Chanel Suite at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. I have spent hours and hours this week at my computer going through images for this new book and trying to define the ones I can live without and those I can't. This made me think about the photographs from my first book, My French Life that never made it in. 

In 2005 Carla Coulson shot the Coco Chanel Suite at the Ritz and these photographs above are such wonderful portraits of old style glamour and at the same time they are a entree into the world of Coco Chanel. Three rooms at the Hotel Ritz, overlooking the Place Vendome, were home to Mademoiselle Chanel for thirty seven years between 1934 and 1971. Today the Hotel Ritz has recreated the world in which she lived, with the help of Karl Lagerfield. Every small and large detail - the wallpapers and the fabrics, the selection of furniture and the decorative objects were researched by art historians from old photographs.

I thought you might like to take a peak. xv

thank you Carla for the images