Twyla Sampaco
Americana
4x5 color negative sheet film, hand-developed on the road in tiny cabin bathrooms
Heartless Twyla (Twyla Sampaco) is a Filipina American photographer and self-published author based in Seattle, WA. Preferring old, gifted, and novelty film cameras, she makes the most of faulty shutters and ambient light, reprocessing unresolved trauma with the romance of plastic lenses, leaking light seals, and inconsistent film advance mechanisms. Her hybrid analog-digital photography process gives her something tangible to do with her hands, and creative latitude for expressing emotional truth. Twyla graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in Material Science & Engineering and did program management things at big companies until she stopped. In 2021, she self-published her first book, "Technicolor Nightmare", a photo memoir about surviving bipolar disorder in her twenties. Twyla’s current projects are surviving bipolar disorder in her thirties and completing her fourth book. She is a resident artist at Blue Cone Studios in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood and is the Photographic Center Northwest basement monster.