In the 1940’s, Laelia took informal lessons with the great British photographer, Bill Brandt. These meetings influenced some of her early work such as her street photography and nudes. She is well known for her portrait of Bill Brandt with his Kodak Wideangle Camera. This photo was taken at the end of 1944 and is of Brandt posing with his new Wide-Angle Kodak camera, a rare camera which had originally been used by the police to photograph crime scenes. It was made of mahogany and brass and had a very wide-angled Zeiss Protar Lens. Brandt experimented with this camera to produce his series Perspectives on Nudes and the camera was sold in 1997 by Christies for £3450.

The exhibition Bill Brandt: Behind the Camera which was set up by Aperture, New York, in the eighties and toured for several years. Laelia’s portrait was used at some venues, possibly including Detroit.