As a photographer/photo archivist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, Carla documented everything from the end of the space shuttle program, events on Capitol Hill and the White House, and human spaceflight. She traveled extensively in the US, Russia and Kazakhstan, working with NASA’s international partners, to cover human spaceflight to and from the International Space Station. Her editorial and reportage work have been distributed worldwide through news and photo agencies such as the Financial Times, Der Spiegel, The Washington Post, National Geographic online, The Guardian, NPR, Getty Images, Reuters. Her documentary work on the U.S. Resist movement has been shared on social media by LensCulture, Photograph Magazine and Exposed DC.

Italian architecture and design magazine FloorNature, and French photography journal L’Oeil de la Photographie have both featured her project Qatar: Landscape of Construction on the rapid pace of expansion in the tiny Gulf state.

Carla holds the distinction of being the first American woman to photograph astronauts launching to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and remains the only American woman to photograph the return to earth from the open door of a Russian military helicopter. Following NASA, she lived and worked in Qatar as a freelance photographer. 

Carla is a member of the Cherokee Nation through her mother’s lineage. She holds a B.A. in Russian Studies, and an M.F.A. in Communications/Photography. In addition, she is a member of WPOW (Women Photojournalists of Washington), Blink and Visura.

Based in the Washington, DC area, she is available for a variety of assignments both domestically and internationally.

Clients include: BLJ Worldwide | Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | City of Alexandria | Der Spiegel | Financial Times | Hamad Medical Corporation (Qatar) | HAVAS Group | Nancy Cost Design | Northwestern University in Qatar | Qatar Financial Authority Centre | Qatar Foundation | RasGas Company Limited (Qatar) | Shutters on the Beach (US) | WAJOOD Strategic Communications (Qatar) | Xi'an Jiatong-Liverpool University (China)