WHAT'S SPECIAL?

• Looow budget equipment.
• Self-education.
• Thirst for adventure.
• A big heart. Pure passion.
• The love for catching a moment forever.
• Luck, hard work and trust.
• No professional education. I'm working with a lot of experience and patience.
• Until 2012 I only used a Canon Digital IXUS 105, a small compact camera.
• Most of my selfportraits were taken in the smallest room with cheap lights and blankets as a background.
• My knowledge about photography is taught by my friends or found on the internet.
• I only use the free software GIMP for editing.

WHAT'S MY STYLE?

I most often take event photos. Unlike posed shootings, events are happening in realtime and moments seem to fly away for good. I catch exactly these moments we all love to remember.

I like to catch real emotions and reveal the true nature of people who feel unobserved. In my eyes, snapshots are so much more beautiful than posed shoots.

WHEN DID IT START?

My first pics date back to my childhood, playing "models" and "photographer" with my cousins. I was lucky that my father was a passionate amateur photographer, so I was able to use his equipment. I remember, when I was 14, I had my first analog camera.

Around 2005 I started to do extravagant "photo shootings" of myself by myself for my social media profiles. My friends started to call me a photographer, so I played my role as one, using the name "Mary Kwizness".

For a while I was working as a nightclub photographer for the Asian party organisation Dynasty Events in Frankfurt. Then in 2012 I discovered the bboy scene and found my real passion. I finally began to see myself as a photographer and in 2014 I took the step to work in a photo studio.

WHY BBOY/HIPHOP PHOTOGRAPHY?

In 2012 I met Julien Bam from JuBaFilms who was a friend of my cousin Andy Long. I was inspired by his photography and movies, we became friends and for the first time I got in contact with bboys. Until then I had only known artists from the tricking and martial arts scene.

Julien taught me my camera functions, introduced me to some international dancers at my first bboy event "Beat Battle" in Bonn, then they asked me to come to the next event. And so I was "unconsciously" sliding into the scene.

WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION?

In the beginning I was just letting the flow happen to me. But after a short while I became so familiar with so many faces who are doing the same thing like me: travel to jams, battles, festivals and workshops regularly, have fun, share one love, exchange, each one teach one, now it feels like some kinda family gathering to see them.

HipHop photography gave me so many wonderful friendships and knowledge about the culture.

Besides, I just love to travel and being an event photographer gives me the opportunity to get around a lot.

WHY "MARY KWIZNESS"?

My friends have been calling me "Kwiz" since 5th grade (~1997) and everyone was getting used to it until today. Some people don't even know that my real name is Christina.

Back in the days one of my friends called me "Chris" in English, but her typical German accent couldn't handle it, so it sounded more like "quiz". That's how I got my nickname for life.

When I made up my pseudonym for my photography works, I wanted a name consisting of a first name and a last name, but also including the "Kwiz", so I modified my fun phrase "Merry Kwizness" (many years used for "Merry Christmas") to "Mary Kwizness" for having a female first name.

• I love Turkey!! Long distance relationship to my Turkish boyfriend since 2015.
• My name Lien Huong (蓮香) means „fragrance of the Lotus“. Lotus is a symbol for purity, perfection, affection and Buddhism.
  
• My official logo is a lense shaped like a Lotus and was designed by myself in 2015.
• I believe in the law of attraction, focus on positive energy, appreciate every blessing of each day and I see good in everything and everyone.
• I am introvert, highly sensitive and very shy!!!
  
• „I got a hunger for knowledge and I miss no meals“. I pay close attention to detail and I got an excellent memory.
• I'm addicted to travel, meet new people, learn languages and experience cultures.
• I've always been a singer in my girl group Intervall in Eiweiler and mixed choir PopChor'N in Frankfurt, used to play the guitar and I've danced Modern Jazz Dance.
• I got a huge family, had a dog for 12 years and I've known my all time best friends since forever. BEST. CHILDHOOD. EVER.
• I've studied Chinese, Japanese and Danish at university and I speak Saarländisch fluently. Born and grown up in Lebach, Saarland. I am currently learning Turkish.
• I love to be nostalgic and collect all kinds of memories, photos, videos and other stuff.
  
• I love to get dressed up - for all kinds of occasions, especially for theme parties!
• I listen to all kinds of music, most often to soul, funk, rnb and oldschool hiphop. My one and only favourite band since 2000 is Incubus.
• I hate to be misunderstood. People do never ask when they don't know. They just assume.
  
• HATERS MAKE ME LAUGH.
• I LOOOVE LIFE, travel, books, Buddhism, yoga, the beauty of nature, good music, food, passionate artists, kung fu action movies, comedies, too much....