What would you expect from a 25 yr old with a PhD in Bioinformatics, a Masters degree in Applied Math and Computational Biology and Bachelors in Physics?
Sounds like a poster child for someone destined for the hallowed halls of MIT, a National Lab, meritorious awards exhorting research skills and academic excellence? You wouldn't be too wrong if you did decide that it was so. But Asya Schween, the 25yr old in question, did something out of the expected. She seemingly "threw it all away" and turned into a very unique photographer. Even this turn around might fail to register high enough on the 'sit up and take notice scale', if there was ever one. But one glance, even if it were fleeting, at her work is guaranteed to do that. She creates self-portraits - creates a setting with the right lighting, takes a picture of herself, spends hours on photoshop and other manipulation software and produces masterpieces - each serving as a looking glass into the human psyche often coughing up raw human emotions in their undistorted, dusturbing form. Each portrait offers layers of intrigue and insight into the human psyche. Peel off one and understand the emotion attached to it and you are presented with another that betters the previous layer.
[Here] is link to an article about her in Bending Light magazine. In it you will also find poster child behaviour for Freudian psychology at work. It is almost fascinating to see his theories take to life.She is a troubled soul and from this "torture garden", the darkest of flowers mirror the grim underside of the human psyche.
Check out her landing page on the devianART community [here]
"Mother, Look!"
I will leave you to ponder Asya, her work and more importantly, her mind with this quote [used in her interview in Bending Light] -
"Either way, I would hope that my work, the thing I make so many sacrifices for, would outshine my dull, uninteresting, predictable, petty, small-minded personality. In other words, I hope my work is much more interesting than me."
