Isa Leshko submitted work to our New Directions 2009 juried show, and I was hooked on the work.I'm a sucker for a carny, and if there is a rodeo nearby, you can't drag me away. The lure of the rides, smell of the corn dogs, and of course, the photobooth...like a moth to a flame.
Isa's images of the carny rides, coasters, tilt-awhirls, ferris wheels and swings are loopy, windy breezes of memories.
Shot with a Holga, the images are a little soft and hazy, like the memories we all share from our childhood.
There is something implied about the motion, imperfect ride, the hanging sensation, that pause before you get jolted in a direction you didn't expect.
This is Isa's statement about the work -
These images explore the fantastic and sinister place these rides hold in our imagination. With these images, I suspend disbelief and embrace the underlying fantasies of these rides. I create these images with a Holga camera to heighten their dream-like and surreal quality. They are deliberately printed dark to reflect the murky-realm that I envision these mechanical beasts inhabiting.
