About

Heartless Twyla (Twyla Sampaco) is a queer 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 intensive analog photography process gives her something tangible to do with her hands, and creative latitude for expressing emotional truth. Her photographs have been exhibited at Vermillion Gallery, Seattle (2021); A-Gallery, Seattle (2023); Mutiny Gallery, Seattle (2022); the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle (2020); and the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles, WA (2019).

Twyla graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in Material Science & Engineering and a certificate in Program Management. In 2021, she self-published her first book, "Technicolor Nightmare", a photo memoir about surviving bipolar disorder in her twenties. In 2023, she published two other books, “Monochrome Daydream”, and “Fragile; not like a Flower. ” 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 Capitol Hill.