Q&As
Lucy Laucht on Her First Photos, Hat Hoarding and Fave Day in NYC
by Joy PecknoldYou can’t look at Lucy Laucht’s travel snaps and not feel flush with wanderlust. Hopping continents for a living, the British-born photographer has worked with Vogue Australia, Travel + Leisure, J.Crew and Armani (and also put together an ace Destination Guide to London for us). She gives her Leica shutter a momentary reprieve to answer our questions.
Growing up, my dad was a photographer. One summer, before our annual camping trip to France, he gave us these little instant-film cameras. I carried my mine around for a long time after the film was spent, framing scenes that caught my eye and practicing.
I studied photography at college but was ultimately discouraged by my tutor, who told me I had no eye for a good photograph and that photography would be a useless pursuit for me. That really stuck and, sadly, I didn’t pick up a camera again until 2010, when my brother passed away. I inherited his Nikon DSLR. He took such amazing photographs—and with his camera it was as if I could see the world through his eyes.
Italian beaches! The colors, the people and the Italian way-of-life by the seaside. The Italian approach to being in spiaggia is an art form. I could literally sit and watch all day.
Unpack, always. It’s my way of feeling at home.
I’m a self-confessed hat hoarder and collect hats wherever I go, from Guatemalan wide-brim styles to beautiful handwoven straw from Oaxaca. Tio y Tia is founded by a collective of creative women, Nicole Najafi, Johanna Peet and myself. It came to life after Nicole spent a month in the Mojave Desert. She found this gorgeous stiff wool hat while thrifting and wore it to pieces. With Tio y Tia, we wanted to recreate the magic. We came together to create a line of beautiful and thoughtfully produced hats.
Dream day in New York goes something like this: walk across the Williamsburg Bridge to Manhattan, breakfast at Russ and Daughters, a visit to the Whitney or Guggenheim (if the Guggenheim, a cocktail at Bemelmans Bar is a must), shopping in Soho at Apiece Apart, happy hour oysters back in Brooklyn at Maison Premier and finish up with a late night movie at Nighthawk Cinema.
In Melbourne, it’s all about coffee. Market Lane is my favorite.
An unreliable van! We broke down a fair bit but in hindsight, those were the hilarious moments that led us to stay in places we would have otherwise missed. We were stranded for a week in Yoho National Park in the Canadian Rockies at it was so beautiful.
Ask yourself, what’s the story you want to tell? Think beyond capturing just one image. Learn your editing style, because it can bring a picture to life. I favor the VSCO app and I like to up the grain for a film emulation.
I am always inspired by the work of Slim Aarons and Arthur Elgort, and contemporary photographers like Steve McCurry, Brydie Mack and Lachlan Bailey.
Cosmetics. I’m a sucker for a foreign pharmacy!
Homemade chai and Clipper teabags (I’m a Brit after all!).
Horseback riding safari in the Okavango Delta. Dream adventure.
Feature image by James Widegren