I choose to use art as a vehicle to explore the inner landscape of the human experience. Creation is the art of consciousness, art the science of the senses. There is a sensuality, a primal and a spontaneous quality to creation, to art. I invite these vital essences into my photographs of people. I am not in search of a look but rather a feeling. Through photography, I risk everything for participation.

I am an artist, a photographer, a filmmaker, and an activist. I have shaped my destiny, and it is headed in one direction: I will be a great artist, sculpting my character and body of work through continued explorations of identity and religion, through examinations of the rich, the poor, the wise and the wild and crazy. I have thousands of images, and while individually they are pieces of art, collectively they create a story of global politics, human relations, sex, passion, spirituality, and abstraction.

What you see on this site is merely a small sample of my work. I have almost completed the layouts for my first series of books, titled respectively Representing Women: Copulating Creatures and Cause and Effect.

Each is a fusion of journalism, art, story sharing and story telling. Together, the works document my exploration of the world through female eyes, my adventures through identity and sex — as both pleasure and pain — and my wider examination of the mark, the eco-footprint, the journey into meaning that human beings have the potential of leaving on this world.

All three books are a compilation of the images and writings that I have created over a decade.

I would like to launch the book series with a complementary gallery showing that is of a scale rarely seen in the art world. I want there to be fireworks, exploding with volume and reverence.

My obsession is endless optimism, is belief in transcendence and brilliance. I embrace the awe of life, even in the face of war and hatred, even after being raped and imprisoned in foreign lands.

I have documented it all, all of my experiences, from the most painful and personal moments to those reflecting my endless adventures. In my personal journalism, I push the boundaries of traditional documentation by photographing and filming the most raw and private moments that life has to offer.

My images are consummate with my experiences, and I choose not to hide, not to be afraid to say, “I have been down on my knees and crying for mercy and yet, still, I am here. Still, I stand before you. Look at me on these walls, in a hospital one day, at the center of the ocean deep-sea fishing the next. Look into my almond eyes while I stand among prostitutes and the Dalai Lama alike.” My life story is quite shocking when shown in its photographic entirety.

I am pulled, always and forcibly, by a mystical undertow, one in which art can transform even raw emotion into something beautiful, something inherently powerful. It is in the chaotic patterns of my life that I see the overwhelmingly abstract beauty of the universe from which anything — and everything — is possible; in this intrinsic gorgeousness of existence, even the prophecy that the meek shall inherit the earth is within reach. We are in need of radical change on a thousand different levels simultaneously. True, revolution is complicated, but it is also possible. True, the potentiality of global healing is daunting, but it can no longer be avoided. We are living within the bounds of a golden crisis, and so, I dedicate my life’s work to securing space for a universal “us” to shine.

I am confident. I know how to entertain, but also how to allure. I believe that you don’t have to fuck people over to survive, and as a result I try to use my force creatively rather than destructively. I claim no hold on Mother Earth. I see clearly that to achieve peace on Earth, there must first be a balance between male and female energy. There must be a redistribution of wealth, resources and knowledge between “the haves” and “the have-nots.” As long as there is disharmony between humanity’s pivoting points, the dis-ease shall reverberate in the echo of our screams, and sorrow's song will haunt us.

I believe that women and men, that those with material wealth and those with the experiential riches of knowledge and suffering all constitute a piece of the puzzle that is life. We are all unique, none of us replicative; we must come to an awareness that every individual brings a needed part of the story to the table.

As a woman, I feel ripe. As an artist, I feel a need to share. I am ready for humanity to feast on the fruits of our labor, for us to come together and celebrate the snowball effect of how far we’ve come. Inertia propels us forwarded faster and faster. We’ve still got a long way to go but I am excited for where we’re going.

I add my art to the adventure. I add my voice to the chorus. I add my ideas to the discourse. When art is paired with purpose, it loses its ego.

May you walk in peace. May you be blessed.

-layla