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Biography

Isa Leshko grew up in Carteret, an industrial town located just off the New Jersey Turnpike. She received her BA from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where she studied neurobiology and cognitive science. She spent the 1990s working for dotcom startups before she discovered her passion for photography.

Leshko is represented by the John Cleary Gallery in Houston, TX, and the Carroll and Sons Art Gallery in Boston, MA. Her work has received two Prix de la Photographie Paris awards, an honorable mention in the Houston Center for Photography 2010 Fellowship Competition, and a Black and White Spider Award nominee in 2008 and 2009.

After spending 16 years living in various parts of New England, Leshko recently moved to Houston, TX, where she lives with her life partner, Matt, and their three cats, Niccolo, Katarina, and Alfred.

Artist Statement

Amusement park rides are vehicles for enacting fantasies for both children and adults. They simulate flight, daring sea adventures, and encounters with other worldly creatures. From the moment we strap ourselves into our seats, we surrender to these giant machines and the physical release they provide. The experience combines elation with fear; thrills with chills.

These images explore the fantastic and sinister place these rides hold in my imagination. With some of these images, I suspend disbelief and embrace the rides’ underlying fantasies. With others, I examine the tensions that exist between fantasy and reality. I am fascinated by the range of emotions—from anger to shock to disenchantment-that people exhibit in pursuit of the amusement these rides are supposed to provide.

I have created these images with a Holga camera to evoke a vernacular feeling and a sense of immediacy. They are deliberately printed dark to reflect the murky realm I envision these mechanical beasts inhabiting.