Speaking OUT: Queer Youth in Focus - 65 Powerful Photographs Of and Words From Queer Youth

Speaking OUT: Queer Youth in Focus, photographed by Rachelle Lee Smith, featuring the teens' own words.

"A photographic essay that collectively explores a wide spectrum of experiences told from the perspective of a diverse group of youth ages 14 to 24 identifying as queer (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning). Portraits are presented without judgment and/or stereotype by eliminating environmental influence with a stark white backdrop. This backdrop acts as a blank canvas to be filled with the each subject’s point of view handwritten onto the final print. With more than 65 portraits photographed over a period of ten years beginning 2001, Speaking OUT provides a rare insight into the ever evolving passions, confusions, prejudices, fulfillment, joys, and sorrows voiced by queer youth."

In the words of Rachel Lee Smith, the photographer and driving force behind this book, "I believe there is strength in numbers, power in words, and freedom in art and I strive to raise awareness with this work."

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