(CNN) – As an only child growing up in Japan, photographer Izumi Miyazaki often let her imagination roam free.

Armed with her mother’s silver Pentax, the young teen developed a peculiar approach to capturing the world around her.

Surreal, grotesque and often humorous, her self-portraits seem to turn “kawaii” — the Japanese descriptor for all things cute — on its head.

Read the full story on CNN.