Christina Lien Huong aka Mary Kwizness

She don't like to call herself a photographer. She is a self-educated, low-budget artist who just follows her instinct. Until 2012 she has been using a Canon Digital IXUS 105, which is a very simple compact camera. Most of her self-portraits were taken in my dormitory room, which was only 10m², using blankets as a background and cheap spotlights from a DIY market.

She take the pictures all by herself without any help by others. Her knowledge about photography is taught by her friends or found on the internet. She has never used Photoshop until today, only Gimp. The first self-portrait "photoshoot" of herself by herself, as being the Mary Kwizness she is today, was in 2006. It started with a profile picture for a social network platform. She was lucky that her father was a passionate amateur photographer, so she was able to use his cameras and tripod. However, the first pictures she took date back to her childhood, playing "model" and "photographer" with her cousins. In those days she was using an analog camera.

Her friends have been calling her "Kwiz" since 5th grade (~1997) and everyone was getting used to it until today. Some people don't even know that her real name is Christina. One day one of her friends called her "Chris" in English, but her accent was quite miserable and it sounded like "quiz". So she had her nickname for life. When she made up her pseudonym for her photography works, she modified her fun phrase "Merry Kwizness" (many years used for "Merry Christmas") to "Mary Kwizness". Back in the days and also today Mary Kwizness is a passionate photographer for Hip Hop events and is specialized in B-Boy photography.