Inside Maya Spangler’s dreamily haunting debut photo book

One girl wearing a fur coat rests her feet on a pile of broken glass at the bus stop. Another girl with pink hair glares up from the mattress, in an otherwise empty room full of dollar bills. Chloe Cherry kneels on the bedroom floor, cradling a real-life grey and white rabbit in her arms. Bella Hadid beams up at Jesse Jo Stark as she performs in La Maison du Caviar. Charli xcx rolls around in metallic silver confetti. Gabbriette in skintight latex waits backstage at NYFW. These scenes are captured by Dazed100 alumni Maya Spangler, and brought together in her debut photo book, Stolen Besos. 

Published by ENTER BLISS, the book was shot across eight cities: LA, NY, Miami, Austin, Phoenix, Warsaw, London and Paris. “This project is, at its core, a self-portrait told in pieces,” Spangler explains. “The girls are versions of the girl I wanted to be: light, free, untouchable. But there’s always something lingering in their eyes. I think that tension between softness, sorrow and chaos is where I was living while making these images.” 

During this creative process, Spangler confesses she was completely estranged from her parents. “I felt like a grown-up child,” she admits. “Most of the subjects are caught in that space between youth and adulthood, and I was drawn to capturing something fleeting and exploring the push and pull between wanting to be seen and wanting to disappear.” These feelings have left a tangibly cool tone across her creative work. “The images feel like a coming of age story, but also a study in estrangement from myself, from my family, from beauty, from the religious ideals I was raised with. My dad passed away after nearly two years of silence between us, and after that, everything in my world shifted. Things got quieter, bluer. I was trying to rebuild some version of myself, and I kept seeing fragments of that version reflected back in the girls I was photographing.”

Spangler’s early explorations in photography began with her grandmother gifting her disposable cameras for cross-country road trips, followed by her mother gifting a Polaroid camera on her 10th birthday – a tool that still exists in her kit today. As a teen, her boyfriend pocketed an Olympus point-and-shoot from Savers, and it transformed her practice. “That’s when I started shooting in a way that actually felt like mine,” she recalls. 

Most of the subjects are caught in that space between youth and adulthood, and I was drawn to capturing something fleeting and exploring the push and pull between wanting to be seen and wanting to disappear – Maya Spangler

In 2021, Spangler ran a site making custom mixtapes, aptly named Sound Advice. Her roommate, Britney, would pose for the ads, and these early mixtape shoots became the genesis of her signature dark, cinematic and sultry style.

The book’s cover is the only image of Spangler within the project. It’s a self-shot photo of her neck and torso, dark hair falling naturally across her shoulders and wearing a large golden cross around her neck. This necklace has become a signature accessory. “I’ve worn it every day for almost five years, so it’s really a part of me now,” she explains. “I grew up extremely religious. I was an altar server for so many years. It’s a way for me to hold onto this part of my life that I don’t resonate with anymore.” The cross is a motif that connects her with her roots. “It’s like holding onto the little girl in me who fully thought I would grow up to be a nun.”

“I’ve always been drawn to that kind of dreamy, broken beauty and places that feel haunted in a quiet way,” she adds. “It’s less about literal darkness and more about emotional residue. The heaviness that lingers after something’s already ended.” There’s a definite allegiance with moody gothic elements via these emotional landscapes of unresolved girlhood. “I think my work sits somewhere between glamour and decay. It’s the morning after the party, walking alone at sunrise. It’s about longing and freedom. The girls in my photos feel untouchable, but they’re not perfect.”

Choosing the models is an instinctual process. “A lot of the girls I shoot are friends or people I come across online and just feel drawn to,” she explains, noting that she has made new connections and become close with many of the subjects, often reusing the same person for multiple shoots. “The book reflects a really specific and personal time in my life, and most of the girls in it are people I already had a connection with. Friends, friends of friends, people I was instinctively drawn to. This project wasn’t cast in a traditional sense, it was very much about who was around me and who I was emotionally tethered to at that moment.” 

In terms of what her subjects project, the photographer is less interested in traditional beauty and more in their personality and how they carry themselves. “There’s obviously a connection that’s rooted in shared experience,” Spangler continues. “There’s this shared language, unspoken feelings and experiences we all just get and I love trading stories, gossiping about boys, learning from each other. Sometimes I’ll spend a single day with someone and leave feeling like I’ve known them forever. Everyone I shoot ends up holding such a special place in my heart.”

Stolen Besos is set to launch in SADE Los Angeles on June 18, with a soon-to-be-announced follow-up book signing in New York. “I’ve never seen my prints this big, I’m so excited for everyone to finally see them in print,” says Spangler on the upcoming event. 

While in Warsaw, Spangler came across an abandoned church, which became the show’s flyer. “It was full of wilted glamour, chipped wallpaper, dead flowers, feathers and confetti on the floor, I imagined the girls in the photographs roaming around there the morning after a huge party and that’s I what I want the gallery to feel like: you’ve stepped into the world these girls live in.” Perhaps this will be the only launch party in existence that will look just as glamorously dishevelled upon opening as it does when doors close.

Follow Maya Spangler on Instagram for more updates on Stolen Besos.