In the News ;
A Look at Aging
Through Animals
; Handsome
One, 33, a
Leshko subject
Philadelphiaphotog- rapher Isa Leshko
sees a lot in the faces
of aging animals. They give her a deeper
understanding of what it means to live
and die. ; Leshko, 40, confronts her own
anxieties about growing old through her
stark black-and-white “Elderly Animals”
images—a scruffy white dog, a wolf near
death. “Perhaps by immersing myself in
my fear, I will be able to dilute its power,”
she says. ; After a year of caring for her
mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, Leshko began her study of mortality through a
chance encounter with a 35-year-old blind
horse named Petey. “I spent the afternoon
photographing him,” Leshko says. “As I
reviewed the film, I realized I had found
a means of expressing how I was feeling
about my mother’s illness.” ; In spending
time with her subjects, Leshko takes an
unflinching look at each animal: “I have
begun to view my images as testaments to
endurance and survival.” Her work will be
on display at the Houston Center for Photography April 27 through June 16. Images
also can be viewed at isaleshko.com/elder
ly-animals. —Marlene Fanta Shyer
HANDSOME ONE, THOROUGHBRED HORSE, AGE 33/ISA LESHKO
