Marina Schinz, born in Zurich, moved to New York in 1964, where she worked for the renowned fashion photographer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897–1969) for five years and pursued a career as an independent photographer. Her photography has been published in magazines such as Time Life Books, The New York Times Magazine, Architectural Digest, House & Garden, House Beautiful, and Town & Country, and in her previous books Visions of Paradise (1985), The Gardens of Russell Page (1989), The Book of Sweets (1994), and A Tuscan Paradise (1995). She now lives near Piacenza, Italy.