A Los Angeles native who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, Lara was a student of film theory and media at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School in Philadelphia, as well as at the Sorbonne's Center for Film and Critical Studies in Paris, and holds degrees in Media Studies and French Literature.

Lara shoots on assignment for architecture and design firms around the country, and has been published in Architect, Architectural Record, Gray, LUXE, Metropolis, Minnesota Architect, the New York Times, Northwest Home, Residential Architect, Seattle Magazine, Texas Architect and Wallpaper*. Her images have been included in books and exhibits nationally and internationally. She has contributed to and authored over 5 books with publisher Documentary Media, most notably, PROCESS: Seattle Central Library, INSPIRED: Churches of Seattle, and in the works, New and Reimagined Libraries of The American South and West. Lara was invited by NGO Meridian International Center to participate in an architecture delegation to the UAE November of 2019, sponsored by the Embassy of the UAE in the US. 

Architizer named Lara one of the prestigious 12 top Women in Architecture Photography internationally in 2018. She was made an Honorary member of the American Institute of Architects in 2005.