Rachel Baran is an extraordinarily talented U.S.-based photographer who creates amazing surreal and conceptual portraits that thousands of people have fallen in love with. And she’s only 20 years old.

One of the best things about Baran’s work is that it’s constantly evolving and growing. As such a young photographer, she’s still trying out different styles and inspirations. Some of her images are dark, introverted and full of suffering, while others encapsulate the young and artistic photographer’s youth and joy. What’s most important, however, is that all of them are creative and very well-done.

Baran experiments with different methods for creating her photos as well. Some are simply manipulated in Photoshop while others are created by combining multiple photographs. Best of all, Baran posts images on her Facebook breaking down the creative process behind some of her more complex photographs, showing us what different images went into the creation of her final picture.

The 20-year-old psychology major’s beautiful images seem similar in spirit to work by Kylli Sparre, another talented photographer that uses Photoshop to create gripping surreal portraits.

surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-13 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-1 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-2 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-4 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-3 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-6 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-17 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-8 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-19 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-9 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-10 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-12 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-18 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-14 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-15 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-16 surreal-self-portraits-rachel-baran-21Websites: flickr | facebook | society6

Powerful and Surreal Self Portraits by 20-Year-Old Rachel Baran originally appeared on Bored Panda.