A video laser speckle imaging technique yields images with contrast based on the mechanical properties of a tissue. Fluctuations of laser speckle patterns induced by acoustically driving the tissue at various frequencies in the 0-30 Hz range encode the mechanical strain of the tissue. At each acoustic frequency and within the camera acquisition time, each camera pixel integrates a temporally fluctuating speckle intensity whose variance encodes the mechanical strain in response to the acoustic modulation. The magnitude and frequency dependence of this strain provide mechanical information about the tissue and are the contrast mechanism for images.