Today we’d like to introduce you to Asya Beckley.
Hi Asya, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
It’s a really long story of how I’ve got to where I am today and it’s something that I take pride in. at first I was a little embarrassed about my journey but when I look back on what I’ve been through I see it’s what made Me Who I am. I always wanted to be a photographer ever since I was young in elementary school. Every birthday and every Christmas I would beg my mom to buy me a camera or a camcorder. I was just so mesmerized about how you can capture a single moment in a steel frame and you can still 1000 stories from that one moment and you also could keep it forever and cherish it.
But before I dive into the full story I feel like I should share my whole story as a person. Growing up was not easy I gave up my childhood at a very young age, around 10 years old I had to help my mom she was a single mother with two kids and was on her own for the very first time. My older sister got sick and it was from mental illness schizophrenia but we didn’t know that at the time. She would say she hears voices she would forget how to walk and talk (this would happen often)and my mom didn’t know what was going on nobody did it for me at a young age that was really scary because I didn’t understand either but I just know I had to have my moms back because I felt like nobody else did.
I was the person that she would talk to that she will vent to that she would scream at that she would cry to and she would just sit with her when there weren’t words to explain the pain or anger or sadness that she was going through. So I didn’t have the regular childhood where you would see your child out with their friends because my mother prevented me from doing that I believe because she was hurt so many times in her life by people that she trusted call friends and family she instilled in me that no one was your friend and you couldn’t trust anybody and leading on somebody was unnecessary.
As time went on the only attention my mother had to give way to my oldest sister. She was in at the hospital homeschool while I was trying to do everything in my power to gain my mother’s attention and just to say she was proud of me so I was in a band I play different instruments, I played basketball, I played volleyball, I was apart of the leadership society at my school, I joined a debate team but somehow somewhere my mother’s attention stayed on my older sister and then I felt alone I feel like I didn’t have anybody in my corner because my dad was it in my life we didn’t go around family as much. So you could say I became depressed became withdrawn and forgot about my passion for photography I forgot about everything but just wanted to get through life; this rough patch.
Then she had my baby sister 14 years later. At first, I wasn’t happy but then when I saw her face and hill her for the first time I knew that she would be the love of my life. I absolutely adore her she was my motivation to keep going because I was in a very dark place with my depression and I didn’t know what depression was or why I felt the way I did so I just pushed it down and ignored it. (I was seeing a counselor and I still am 15 years later.)
Fast forward a few years my sister was becoming very uneasy. Remind you she has a mental illness but she did push me in front of a moving car she threatens to kill me I didn’t feel safe so I used to lock myself in my room when I was asleep and I would leave my bathroom window unlocked just in case something happened. She will bully me because I was younger and she was bigger than me and she would blame it on her hearing voices when she did something to me my mom used to make me apologize to her and I feel like I wasn’t heard. So the depression got darker and on September 28, 2014, I commit suicide I did die they had to resuscitate me when I got to the hospital.
When I woke up I was furious because the one person I hated in this world found me. I planned on doing it again but at the time I saw how much it hurt and my mom in the fact that she didn’t see that I was so absent-minded didn’t understand and it hurt me so I decided to work towards being better mentally so I start to tell her a bit by bit or how I felt and the things that pushed to feel like this was the only answer. After I get out of the sideboard, I return back to high school and I was bullied and called names like “crazy bitch” because of my attempt nobody asked me if was that OK or if nobody asked me what did I do it they just assume that I was crazy.
Still struggling with depression I managed to go to college and I wanted to major in photography but my dad told me that wasn’t practical to find something that was going to guarantee money for years to come so I chose funeral science and I absolutely loved it! I did have an interest in becoming a forensic pathologist but on January 3, 2018, my brother who was really my cousin but we were so close felt like a brother to me. He was shot and killed. He was my person, we dreamed of traveling together.
We found out that we were going through similar things that our other siblings got the attention that they were hearing that they got the things that they want but it felt like we were being ignored and treated differently. So we decided when we both finished college we will just travel the world together, just us. His death was too much for me to handle and so I dropped out of college because being in the funeral industry and knowing how the embalming or cremation process works was too much to think about.
A year after I started working at Lowe’s, I forgot about my photography I forgot about traveling I just forgot about life in the sense. I fell in love with working at Lowe’s just meeting the people and learning new things that I could adapt to my life I didn’t feel the need to change but unfortunately all things must come to end because in the summer of 2019 I was at work at Lowe’s and I got hit in the face by a pressure washer hose that blew off the pressure washer. He gave me a bad concussion and whiplash it messed up three of my teeth and I had to have a total of five root canals.
It was just a long process and recovering and being at home in bed can’t do anything not working no school answer suffering from depression it’s a bad mix. But I promised myself that I wouldn’t let myself get back to the point where the darkness was too suffocating that I couldn’t get myself back out. At this point, this is where I bought my first DSLR camera.
I started taking pictures and I found my passion again just to capture someone’s special moment and let them be able to cherish it and for them to tell me how much they appreciate me and to thank me and just to see the smile on their faces when they see my images that were all I needed. I didn’t think about starting a business with my Photography all I just want to do was go back to work but still continue to take pictures. then something inside of me found out that I could travel and take pictures and turn them into a business. So that’s what I did. I didn’t have a business plan I didn’t know what I was doing business-wise I just knew that I wanted to capture moments and I want to other people all over the world to see my work.
Asya Beckley Photography is known as Pic MAFIA today. I have a very successful business I am now international. And standing here now today if you will tell me back when I was 16 that I will have my own business of doing something that I’ve always wanted to do I wouldn’t believe you. I still struggle with depression today I still thought about suicide on a few occasions and after that last attempt afterward, I only attempted again once. But the story of my life I wouldn’t change it because if it wasn’t for everything that I went through I wouldn’t be where I am at this moment.
Before this article, I’d always wanted people to hear my story about my fight with MDD (Major Depressive Disorder) so I started a nonprofit called Dark Corners. Is named up because no matter how much light shines in a room no matter how small the object is it’ll always cast a dark shadow. Can you please figurative statement no matter how small a thought is no matter how much light you try to shine to cover up that darkness there’s always a small cast of it somewhere? No matter how big or small it’s worth talking about. So I want to help others talk through their emotions so no one has to go through what I went through feeling like there’s no one to talk to or understand.
I am where I am today because I’m trying to be the person 10-year-old me needed throughout life someone to look up to someone to see that anything is possible I needed someone to love me for me. I thought at a point I was doing this for other people but at times there’s a need to be selfish and I’m proud to say that I’m doing this for me.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road as I’ve explained in the previous question. Like I said I struggle with depression, I struggle with family issues/drama, people doubting that my business would go anywhere, I didn’t have my family support, and self-doubt was one of them.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I have my own traveling photography business and I am now international! It’s called Pic MAFIA. I got the name idea from my working at one of my closest friends’ tattoo shops. His shop name is Ink Mob Studios. He was one of the first people that actually took my business seriously and he gave me one of my first opportunities to shoot professionally and have a full creative decision. And the name also condescended from one of my good friends.
We always yelled the word “Mafia” to each kind of started a tradition on when we hang up the phone instead of saying bye we said “Mafia”. He’s an artist/producer and he always books me when he can for his shoot. So between these two people, they are the foundation of my business because that’s where it all started. So that’s how I came up with the name Pic MAFIA to remind me where I came from and it keeps me grounded.
I specialize in all types of photography there’s nothing really I won’t turn down if given the opportunity to shoot. I’m open-minded to absolutely anything and everything.
I’m proud that I accomplished so much with no marketing team no manager no financial advisor I’m all of these people in one and I’ve created something unimaginable.
I feel like what sets me apart from others is my story and my journey because what I do isn’t simply a passion it’s become my lifestyle it’s become my other half becomes a part of me. It’s the fact that I connect with every client so personally and so deeply that they remember my birthday and remember to wish me to have a good one. Would say I apart from everyone else is that I have a debilitating mental issue and I won’t let that stop me.
I have fibromyalgia, I have severe asthma problems, I have heart problems, and on top of all of this, I deal with depression. And I’m not saying this to make people feel bad for me but I’m saying that no matter what you go through in life there’s always a reason to keep going and that’s what sets me apart from everyone because I use everything I go through; I use the pain as fuel to keep going, I use it to create something beautiful for lifetimes to share.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
My advice is to stick with your vision and don’t let anybody change it no matter what but be open-minded to learn new things. The things that have worked well for me are stepping out of my comfort zone and becoming more social even though growing up I didn’t have the opportunity to do so.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Www.instagram.com/_asya.b_
- Facebook: Www.Facebook.com/picmafiaa
- Youtube: Www.YouTube.com/user/asya2badd4ya
