Laina McWhorter is a street, music and travel photographer, a vagabond, a wannabe rockstar and a really, really big nerd. She earned her BFA in Photography in 2004 from Arizona State University and went on to freelance for local and national publications. She spent over 5 years as the staff photographer of the Arizona Rollerderby League in the early 2000s, earning the derby name, “Triggerhappy”. A gay woman, mother and a wife, her lust for travel is never satiated in the day to day parts of life. By 2017, Laina managed to travel to all 50 states in the U.S.A., Mexico, Canada, the Cayman Islands, and Indonesia. Her work offers the viewer humour, beauty and often tackles issues that are biggerthan herself, offering a critical view of the social, politicaland cultural issues.
Laina's work has appeared in campaigns for One Voice Community Center, GoodwillArizona and Avanti Press, as well as publications andmedia outlets such as The Advocate, Inspired Eye Magazine, Nailed! Magazine, Voyage Phoenix Magazine, Drift Travel Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Skin and Ink Magazine, Five on Five Magazine, Edge of Humanity Magazine, The Phoenix New Times, The East Valley Tribune, The State Press, SLAM Magazine, Tempe Starving Artist Magazine, HBO's original television series: Enlightened, GSNTV's hit television show: Skin Wars, CBS TV's show: Hawaii 5-0 and several books depicting the growing sport of women's roller derby.