©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

The Perspective Gallery in Evanston, Illinois asks the question, How does where you live influence who you are? Exploring this idea, Perspective Gallery’s October 3rd through 27th show, “The Power of Place: Geographical Memories and Identity,” features two new series of work by artists Susan Isaacson and Katsy Johnson. Both series invite viewers to reflect on the deep connections between personal history, memory and the environments that shape us. There is an opening on October 5, 5-7 pm CST and a Virtual Artist Talk: October 17, 7 pm CST.

Isaacson will be featuring her project, At Silver Lake that is a reconsideration of family photos. The process of re-photographing old Kodachrome slides allows for new consideration of time and place, of people and memory. She has “invited refracted light, environmental intrusions, and focal plane manipulations to transform the images.” These new efforts have a layer of magic, dust particles that not only speak to the past but to something intangible and mysterious.

Delving into the space between memory and imagination, Isaacson’s, “At Silver Lake” began as an exploration of personal photographic archives—images that evoked the sense of wonder and curiosity Isaacson experienced growing up along the shores of her family lake home. . “The unpredictable magic in the recorded flecks of light,” she says, “connected me to an imagined world and to the enduring energy of loved ones who are no longer here.” During the creation of this series, Isaacson experienced the profound loss of both of her brothers to terminal illness, infusing her recollection with a poignant perspective on love, loss and the passage of time.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

At Silver Lake

Much is lost in the act of remembering. By exploring personal photographic archives, I reclaim the sense of wonder and curiosity experienced in my youth, while idling along the shores of our family lake home or discovering new terrain. In this series, I have re-photographed vintage Kodachrome slides, inviting refracted light, environmental intrusions, and focal plane manipulations to transform the images.

There is an unpredictable magic in the recorded flecks of errant light. They connect me to an imagined world and the enduring energy of loved ones who are no longer here. During the period of making this work, both my brothers lost their battles with terminal illness. Thus, my act of recollection has been tinged with the perspective of loss and eroded by the passage of time. This collection holds layers of familial love, connection to place, and remembrance.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

Tell us about your growing up and what brought you to photography….

I grew up in a tight-knit family in the suburbs of Chicago, with my parents, a sister and two brothers. We spent much of our summers along the shores of central Wisconsin lakes. My grandparents had a pickle packing business in Red Granite, Wisconsin and our extended family rented cottages on nearby Silver Lake in the summertime. It is a place where I recall many of my earliest childhood memories. My parents eventually purchased a property and built a cabin on the shores of Green Lake, a beautiful spring- fed lake and the deepest inland lake in Wisconsin. This became the center of our family life for over fifty years, where we entertained a constant stream of visiting relatives, friends and colleagues, until it was sold to another family in 2022.

My interest in photography started early. I can remember warm family gatherings watching home movies and slideshows projected onto our living room wall. My grandfather was an avid amateur photographer who favored Nikon cameras and passed them down to my late brother, who in turn became a professional photographer. I became enthralled with photography in a high school darkroom class. It was a way for me to creatively and visually express myself. But, other than chronicling outdoor adventures and travel, I put aside photography until leaving a corporate job to raise my two daughters. I picked up the camera again with the intention to make more artistic, candid portraits. Then, one thing led to another. In the years since, I have forged a steady photographic practice – developing skills in community college classes and professional workshops across the country. Photography is a meditative practice for me. It keeps me focused on the present moment while deepening my understanding of the world around me and myself. Much of my work is about time, memory and the emotional uncertainty encountered in life transitions.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

So much of your work celebrates the natural world. What draws you to the world outside the front door?

I think a lot has to do with the way I was raised spending summers in the country with the freedom to explore and appreciate nature. That early experience led to later back-country adventures and an interest in the environment. In recent years, the natural world has become a place where I connect spiritually. There is something so powerful in the forces of nature that make me aware and appreciative of a world much greater than myself. I’m also drawn to the natural world as a means to connect to and represent my inner world. I find understanding and solace in the cycles of nature. And, it is where I find beauty.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake (The Big Fish)

What made you start re-photographing your family photos?

I began this project in 2021 when we were still limited by the constraints of the Covid epidemic. I wanted to reclaim the sense of wonder and curiosity I
experienced in my youth while idling along the shores of our family lake home or discovering new terrain on cross-country road trips. I thought that revisiting my personal archives of Kodachrome slides could serve as an entryway into the expansiveness I craved. I was also interested in exploring memory, the role that photographs play in evoking memories and how memories are colored by what is happening in the present moment. I experimented with projecting slides onto the walls and windows of my home and even onto my body, but nothing was working. Then one day, I held a slide up to window light and saw what reminded me of my first encounter with the aurora borealis. A rush of excitement moved through me. This became the first image in the series and provided direction for the rest of the project.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

Was there a particular process involved? The work has such a historic quality.

All of the images are based on vintage slides, spanning the 1950’s to the late 1980’s, so to a large extent there is history embedded in them. I re photographed the slides using a macro lens and invited refracted light from a wide variety of sources to alter the images. I manipulated the focal plane to vary the amount of clarity and points of focus within each image. I also embraced the imperfections inherent in the slides. Years of environmental degradation, collected dust, scratches and water damage, when illuminated, lent a mystical quality to the reimagined scenes. In some ways the process of making the series mirrored the sense of adventure I sought to recreate. There was an unpredictable magic in the errant flecks of light that traveled across the frame. As I worked with the archives, I enjoyed playing with time, taking images out of chronological order to mimic the way recall happens. Memories often come back out of order and with varying degrees of clarity. I prefer to do most of my work in camera rather than in post production. In this series, I chose to convert the work to black and white and applied a sepia split tone. This was intentional to bring a feeling of nostalgia and cohesiveness to the collection.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

I’m so sorry about the loss of your brothers–I can only imagine that your photographic archives are a solace…

There are layers of loss embedded in this work. There is a general nostalgia for days gone by and recognition that these times will not come again, nor be
remembered in the same way. More profoundly, I experienced the loss of both of my younger brothers to terminal illness during the period I was making this work. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of each of them and their families. The archives themselves are of great solace; they chronicle many chapters of our early lives together. But the process of reimagining them was bittersweet. There was a point when I was unsure if I would be able to complete the series. Continuing to create in some ways helped me process the grief I was experiencing. The light that emerged within the frame as I reinterpreted the slides, offered me hope and reminded me of the loving memory and connections that will endure.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

What has been inspiring you lately?

The natural world continues to inspire me, the sense of oneness and wholeness I feel when connected to natural landscapes, seascapes and the infinite night sky. I am also fascinated by observing how light moves through minerals, prisms and crystals. I have been playing with lens modifiers to induce lens flare and insert my own rainbows into landscapes.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

Can you tell us about your exhibition at the Perspective Gallery?

I will be showing “At Silver Lake” in a joint exhibition with artist Katsy Johnson entitled “The Power Of Place: Geographical Memories and Identity” at
Perspective Gallery in Evanston, IL. While the expression and execution of our work is very different, both our collections reflect on the deep connections between personal history, memory and the environments that shape us. The show runs from October 3rd through October 27th, with an opening reception at the gallery on Saturday, October 5th from 5 to 7 p.m. We will also hold a virtual artists’ talk on October 17th at 7 p.m. central time. You can register for the talk by following this link to the Perspective Gallery website: perspectivegallery.org

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake (Where I Imagine You To Be)

You divide your time between two different parts of the country. Do you make different work in both places?

That’s a really interesting question. When we first started spending time on the west coast, I was so taken by the change in geography that I began making work attuned to what was new and different. Coming from the midwest, where the topography is quite flat, I was intrigued by the expansive views afforded by hilltop vantage points overlooking canyons and ocean. And, I was mesmerized by the advance and retreat of marine layer fog. Now, I am able to work consistently on the same body of work from both locations. I am drawn to wild grasses, meadows and open waters, which I can access in both locations. I am fortunate to spend time in two places with an abundance of natural preserves and expansive waterscapes.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

What’s next?

I’m working on an on-going series entitled The Seventh Year, which explores my belief that all living things are interconnected and humans are not separate from the natural world we inhabit. It was inspired by reading “Braiding Sweetgrass” by botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer and subsequently learning about the sabbatical for the land in Jewish tradition, which is a time of rest and renewal for the earth. It is a collection that combines landscapes with conceptual self-portraits to express the notion of oneness I feel in wild, natural spaces.

©Susan Isaacson, At Silver Lake

Susan Isaacson is a photographic artist exploring themes of time, memory, and the emotional topography of life transitions. She is drawn to the natural landscape as a means to connect to and represent her inner world. Following a twenty-year career in strategic marketing at a Fortune 100 company, Isaacson established a dedicated photography practice in Chicago, Illinois and Laguna Beach, California. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across the U.S. and internationally. Isaacson is represented at Perspective Gallery in Evanston IL, where she is currently mounting her third solo exhibition, At Silver Lake. Isaacson was recognized as a Critical Mass Top 200 Finalist in 2023 for her series, We Share The Same Breath and again in 2024 for At Silver Lake. Isaacson’s work has been featured in Black + White Photography (UK), SHOTS Magazine, NewCity Art and LENSCRATCH. Her work is held in private collections within the United States.