Carla Cioffi

Carla Cioffi is a photographer working across multiple genres. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela to a Sicilian immigrant father and an American mother. Through her mother's lineage, she is a member of the Cherokee Nation.

As a photographer/photo archivist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, she documented everything from the end of the space shuttle program, congressional hearings on Capitol Hill, events at the White House, to extensive travel to Russia and Kazakhstan covering human spaceflight to and from the International Space Station (ISS). She 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 spent time living and working in Qatar as a freelance photographer.

Carla's editorial and reportage work has been distributed internationally through news and photo agencies such as Der Spiegel, Financial Times, The Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, National Geographic online, Getty Images, AP, and Reuters. Her photographs of the Resist movement in the United States, entitled Nevertheless, We Persist, have been shared on social media by LensCulture, Photograph Magazine, and Exposed DC. Her photographs have been exhibited throughout the United States and in Europe.

She holds a B.A. in Russian Studies, an M.F.A. in Photography/Communications and is an alumna of The Maine Media Workshops. She is a member of WPOW (Women Photojournalists of Washington)

Currently based in the Washington, DC area, Carla is available for a variety of assignments both domestically and internationally.