Sarai Mari

Photographer

Sarai Mari was born in Nara, Japan. She studied photography at Santa Monica College then moved to NY as a photo journalist for the Spanish magazine Semana, she moved back to Tokyo and began taking portraits of rock stars for music magazines as well as photographs for fashion publications. In 2005, she relocated to London, where she became a well-established fashion photographer, shooting for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar UK and Dazed & Confused. In 2010, she published her first book, NAKED, its a monograph of female nudes, much of her work is inspired by Helmut Newton for his erotically charged representations of strong women. Her book NAKED is the culmination of two years of work around the subject of femininity and female sexuality, suffused with Mari’s provocative interpretation of female strength. In March 2017, Mari has released her second book via Damiani Books, Speak Easy, inspired by the gender roles men and women play within society. By celebrating all the nations 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. She currently lives and works in New York. She shoots for Interview magazine and Vogue Japan. Mari's 3rd book project will be published in Spring 2019.