What makes a picture beautiful?

Lauretta Suter

“I do love a good pastel colour palette”

Lauretta Suter has style. Her photography is beautifully simple, and simply beautiful, but it also has a certain something – a magic that (certainly in my case) makes many of her images stick in my head long past first glance.

A dazzling array of clients and publications clearly agree.

I wish I had her eye for beauty – enough that I am bound to ask ‘Lauretta, what makes a picture beautiful?’

A dash of pink, a hand full of glitter and a smidge of something fluffy. Mix well, and Voilà! Just kidding, but I do love a good pastel colour palette, interesting textures and a clean set.

Lauretta Suter, A Curate's Egg
I find beauty in almost incomprehensible, unusual moments. It can be some kind of off-moment in a model’s movement sequence, or the protagonist’s expression. Something that is fascinating and irritating at the same time. Your beautiful, however, might be completely different. Be honest about what you like – and then own it. Even if it means adding fluffy monsters to your stories.

Lauretta Suter, A Curate's Egg
Lauretta Suter, A Curate's Egg
When creating my stories, I’m always looking to balance polished beauty and slight awkwardness. I like adding something that doesn’t quite make sense, like the aforementioned fluffy monster or huge cloudy pillows dropping on a girl in a purple room. A picture can be aesthetically pleasing in many ways, but it strikes me as beautiful, when there’s something humorous in it, waiting to be discovered…because let’s be real; life’s already serious enough!

Lauretta Suter, A Curate's Egg
Lauretta Suter, A Curate's Egg

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