Dreamy, sterile and lifeless, Maya aka. @stolenbesos work is defining the look of a new lobotomy-chic generation.
In the seven months since she entered the field the photography, her lifeless yet soft visuals have been at the centre of the emerging lobotomy-chic/dissociative pout trend – her shoot with Chloe Cherry is generally considered the initial embodiment of the despondent, dissociative pout – and have turned her into a rising internet star.
Often featuring deadpan it-girls – Devon and Sydney Lee Carlson, Bella Hadid, Quenlin Blackwell, Rae and Cherry among them – dawned in ribbons and lace, Maya’s work is shot with cool-toned flash and framed in a pastel-and-black colour palette. It’s dreamy and soft, but it’s delivered with an edge.
“I’ve always liked playing with the contrast, like models wearing ribbons and blonde curly wigs while crawling in the dirt – where she looks really clean and cute, but is doing something kind of gross,” says Maya.
Before she started creating her own images, Maya modelled for male photographers, an experience that has deeply informed her work.
“I didn’t like the way they made me feel. I didn’t like the way they shot me, and I didn’t recognise myself in the photos they took of me. I never felt beautiful or empowered or soft or anything that felt like me,” she says.
Dissatisfied with the male gaze and its skewed, sexualised lens, she picked up a camera herself and now shoots girls she can see herself in, whether it be their despondent, void expression or their delicate, cold depiction.
