Melancholic Portraits Of Elderly Animals Help Photographer Face Her Own Fear Of Mortality

Philadelphia-based photographer Isa Leshko created a series of beautiful portraits of elderly animals as a means to explore our collective perception of old age and her own fears of mortality. The artist finds the animals in sanctuaries after they had been rescued from factory farms. Leshko first tries to make a connection with the animals by watching them and lying beside them for hours on end, trying to recognize their peculiarities and make them feel comfortable around her before the actual photoshoot.

“I am creating these photographs in order to take an unflinching look at aging and mortality,” writes Leshko in her artist statement. “My maternal grandmother has dementia during her later years, and now my mom has it. Photographing geriatric animals enables me to immerse myself in my fear of growing old.”