Elderly Animals: Photographs by Isa Leshko

Photographer Isa Leshko discusses her series entitled Elderly Animals. Learn more about Isa and her work at http://www.IsaLeshko.com. Learn more about the filmmakers at http://www.WalleyFilms.com.

[MUSIC, melodic piano and guitar throughout...]

A couple years prior to beginning the project

i had spent a year in New Jersey

caring for both my parents,

my mum has alzheimer's disease

and during that period

i made a conscious decision

not to photograph my family.

it did though have a big emotional impact on me

and i knew, somewhere,

it was gonna emerge in my work.

About a year after, uh, that time in new jersey,

i was visiting a relatives property,

and she had a very old horse

named Petey.

i was just fascinated, mesmerized with Petey,

and, uh, fell in love with him,

and spent the afternoon photographing him.

But i didnt think that there was the basis

of a long term project there.

i was thinking of it as more therapy,

it organically developed into a project.

There have been points when

i've fought back tears as im shooting.

Um, the rooster, in particular,

was just in such a sad state

when i encountered him.

i was just feeling

and not thinking

when i was with him

i wanted to make sure that

i honoured the experience.

i wanted the images to be unflinching in their detail

i didnt want there to be any risk of sentimentality

with the work.

Because it feels to me disrespectful, uh,

to who the animal really is.

In a lot of respects these images

say as much about me

as they do about my subjects.

The caregivers have found a lot of comfort

in the images,

particularly after their animals have passed.

That there is an image that they feel

has really shown who their animal was.

i'm looking at mortality, and aging,

and 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.