Laura Letinsky is best known for her elegant composed still life photographs. Inspired by the 17th century European still life paintings, Letinksy offers her 21st century perspective of the genre. She is aware of the rich narrative possibilities that still life presents. Although her photographs are similar to Dutch still life, they are more modernised.

The scenery usually has a dirty table cloth, as if someone just got up and left their meal after a huge argument with someone. Although as thoughtfully composed as the arrangements of those historic painters, her images embrace the messiness of real life where peaches rot, and table cloths are stained with spilled red wine and covered with crumbs from meals consumed.

Early in her career, she photographed couples in their own homes creating visual narratives about love and relationships. By the late 1990s she stopped photographing people and replaced them with objects. She began using objects that hinted at human presence.