50. December 2009: Isa Leshko

Isa Leshko grew up in Carteret, an industrial town situated off the New Jersey Turnpike. She received her BA from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where she studied psychology with an emphasis on neurobiology and cognitive science. She spent the 1990s working for dot.com startups as a project manager and software engineer before she discovered her passion for photography. Isa has studied at the New England School of Photography and the Woodstock Center for Photography. In addition, she completed the Artist's Professional Toolbox program sponsored by the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston. She has exhibited her work widely through the northeast including at the Soho Photo Gallery, NY, NY; the Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA; the Photographic Resource Center in Boston, MA; and the Silvermine Guild Arts Center in New Canaan, CT. Her work can be viewed and purchased through the John Cleary Gallery in Houston, TX and through the Boston Drawing Project at the Carroll and Sons Art Gallery in Boston, MA. Although Isa works with other cameras, she is enthralled by toy cameras such as Holgas and Dianas. As an incorrigible perfectionist, she finds it both maddening and liberating to create images that are beautifully imperfect. Isa spent 16 years living in various New England towns including Providence, RI, Portsmouth, NH and Salem, MA. In October 2009, she moved to Houston, TX where she lives with her life partner, Matt, and their three cats, Niccolo, Katarina, and Alfred. www.isaleshko.com