All The Pop Girls Have Charlotte Rutherford On Speed Dial

Dreaming up a creative world is one thing, executing it is another. And when pop girls like Zara Larsson, PinkPantheress, and Eli want to bring their most extravagant, eccentric ideas to life, they call up Charlotte Rutherford.

You might not know the name, but you’ve definitely seen her work. An English photographer and director, Rutherford is the secret sauce behind your favorite pop-girl eras of 2026. Most recently, she was the cinematic impresario behind Larsson’s “Blue Moon” visuals, which dropped on Oct. 14 and sees Larsson expanding on the glittery fantasy world of Midnight Sun through magical fairies and land-locked mermaids. Yes, she’s been working with the girls for a minute (she did direct the music video for Charli xcx’s “Claws” back in 2020, after all), but recently Rutherford has become the de facto creative for bringing their vision to life, and for good reason.

A quick scroll through Rutherford’s Instagram sums up her resume better than an IMDb page ever could; in the past year alone, she directed the music video for PinkPantheress and Larsson’s hit collab “Stateside,” photographed editorial shoots for Katseye and Carly Rae Jepsen, shot cover of Moliy’s Baddies <3 Moliy mixtape, and captured the campaign for Larsson’s Main Rose swimwear drop.

Of course, before Larsson and Rutherford gave us “Blue Moon,” there was “Midnight Sun,” of which the campy, Lisa Frank-style video (another Rutherford directorial masterpiece) arguably set the tone for the rest of the era to follow. The clip of Larsson dancing to the chorus has bolstered the meme economy tenfold since the video premiered in June 2025, and since then, the song has gone on to be one of Larsson’s most defining works to date.

It’s no wonder, then, why Rutherford has continuously been at the forefront of the Midnight Sun era, and why when a pop star wants to get a successful era off the ground, they call up Rutherford — as one of the prominent creative eyes behind arguably the most successful era in recent memory, it’s not farfetched to assume that these other girls saw the impact that Larsson’s and Rutherford’s collaboration had on culture and the charts, and decided to replicate that magic for themselves.