Speak Easy

SARAI MARI has always been interested in the gender roles men and women play within society. We all share a desire to be understood and to be accepted. In our radically changing and highly judgmental society, people are often scared of being isolated or left behind. So they conform to fit in. But in adhering to an outside perception of oneself, we are unconsciously denying our true selves. The photographer has become obsessed with discovering the true people behind the masks. What lies hidden beneath the skin is often much more beautiful than that which is projected outward.

Since she was young, she has seen a simple transparency in the complex relationships people have with each other. She breaks down the layers through her lens and the mask falls away, revealing an intimate vulnerability that makes time stop. Speak Easy captures the essence of who her subjects are. By celebrating all definitions of gender and sexuality, the previously defined terms fall away. They lose their meaning; and there is nothing left but the raw expression of the subject in the image. This is the society we live in today.