Simplicity

Louise R perches on a carved white bench beside a wall of hand-painted Portuguese azulejo tiles, the blue geometric patterns echoing the cool confidence in her green eyes. She wears a pink-and-white marble-print bandeau and matching high-cut bikini bottoms that ride above the widest point of her hips, the tie-dye swirl of the fabric a playful counterpoint to the centuries-old tilework behind her. Her platinum blonde hair hangs thick and voluminous to her waist, and the warm terracotta floor and potted palm beside her complete a scene that is Mediterranean to its bones. Simplicity keeps things pared back, and when the model looks like Louise, nothing more is needed.

She rises and turns to the side, the bandeau peeling away to reveal the heavy, round shape of her breasts in profile, while her thick, sculpted thighs and plump, high bum create a silhouette that belongs on a classical frieze. One foot lifts from the tile, the muscles in her calf tightening, and the movement draws a long, curved line from ankle to hip that the eye cannot help but follow. In the final frame she faces the camera directly, bare from the waist up, the pink bikini bottoms the only remaining splash of colour, her head tilted slightly, her expression calm and assured. Louise needs no elaborate setting or complicated wardrobe. The title says it all: simplicity, when you have this much to work with, is the ultimate power move.