Portraits of Elderly Animals ~ by Photographer Isa Leshko

Artist statement by Isa Leshko
I am traveling to sanctuaries across the country to photograph animals that are elderly or at the end stage of their lives. I began this series after I spent a year caring for my mother who has Alzheimer’s disease. I am taking these pictures to gain a deeper understanding about what it means to be mortal and to exorcise my fears of aging. I have come to realize that these images are self-portraits, or at the very least, they are manifestations of my fears and hopes about what I will be like when I am old.

Phyllis, Southdown Sheep, Age 13

Capuchin Monkey, Age 30+




"Looking at mortality and aging, that's not easy subject material. Some of the subjects do seem sad and tired, some of them are downright defiant and stare down the camera. I think these images are testaments to survival and endurance, and finding meaning and joy in life in the face of physical limitations and challenges." ~ Leshko

Violet, Potbellied Pig, Age 12

 Handsome One, Thoroughbred Horse, Age 33

 Blue, Australian Kelpie, Age 19

 Pumpkin, Morgan Arabian Horse, Age 28

Kelly, Irish Wolfhound, Age 11

Photographer Profile ~ Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna (born 1953) is an English photographer best known for his black & white landscapes.

Kenna attended Upholland College in Lancashire, the Banbury School of Art in Oxfordshire, and the London College of Printing. In 1977, he moved to San Francisco, where he met Ruth Bernhard and became her assistant and photographic printmaker for eight years. Michael is equally dedicated to the darkroom and makes his own prints ensuring a subdued, intimate atmosphere in every image.

Kenna's photography focuses on unusual landscapes with ethereal light achieved by photographing at dawn or at night with exposures of up to 10 hours. Since about 1986 he has mainly used Hasselblad medium format and Holga cameras and this accounts for the square format of most of his photographs.

His work has been shown in galleries and museum exhibitions in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States. He also has photographs included in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Patrimoine photographique in Paris, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. His photography of the ruins of concentration camps was featured in the opening credits of the Holocaust film Esther's Diary (2010).

[via wiki and here]

'I gravitate towards 

places where humans have been 

and are no more, to the edge of man’s

influence, where the elements are 

taking over or covering 

man’s traces' ~  Michael Kenna

' I often think of my work as visual haiku. 

It is an attempt to evoke and 

suggest through  

as few elements

as possible 

rather than to describe

with tremendous detail. ' 

~ Michael Kenna

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