Sasha Marie Speer uses a variety of materials and processes to investigate, break apart and reconfigure how we connect to ourselves and each other. Through her provoking and powerful studio sessions in photography, video and audio she harnesses the soul of her subjects and creates experiences from them in her work. She interweaves pain and hope into visual forms and experiences to capture and challenge our current state as human beings and seeks possibility of real connection in a world of constant distraction and separation.

 

Sasha discovered her true gift for listening and uniting others at an early age. Her parents fought constantly and it tore her apart. Getting them to love and understand each other became her mission – at home, in the car, on vacation. She could see each other’s point of view and loved each fully and equally. She has carried that gift of love for humanity into the field of medicine as a physical therapist, where she recognized that through listening, she was often able to achieve more than with any prescription. In addition, she has lived all over the world from the time she was 15 to learn as much as she could about other cultures from their point of view. It is this curiosity that led her to travel the United States and work with patients in their homes, learning about their lives and histories, and healing from their emotional wounds to their physical.

 

In 2012, Sasha had her own brush with devastation when her father passed away, immediately followed by her mother being admitted to the psych ward and her family losing everything they had worked for from a frivolous law suit. She was trying to hold it all up on her own and she broke, being riddled with intense pain, a mysterious rash, and recurring fever. Refusing to end up on meds or in surgery, she decided to find her healing. She delved into a desperate quest for an answer, which led her on a spiritual journey to better understand herself and all things. 

 

It is with this deep awareness Sasha began her career as an artist. Sasha's company, Sawübona, meaning 'I See You' in Zulu, is the physical manifestation of Sasha's inner work as a human and as an artist; resulting in experiences that heal and unite. Her photo and video sessions, exhibitions and films have been eye-opening and healing for those who have experienced them and have helped raise over $100,000 for Los Angeles based nonprofit organizations.