Isa Leshko grew up in Carteret, an industrial town situated off the New Jersey Turnpike. She was born in 1971 at Rahway Hospital not far from the White Castle immortalized by George Tice. 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 throughout the United States, including at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA; the Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA; the Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR; 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. In addition, the Boston Public Library recently purchased five prints from her Thrills & Chills series for their permanent collection. Her work has received four Prix de la Photographie, Paris Awards, an honorable mention for the Houston Center for Photography 2010 Fellowship Competition, and was nominated for a Black and White Spider Award in 2008 and 2010. In addition, she was selected for the 2010 Review Santa Fe Portfolio Review. 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 her life partner, Matt, and their three cats, Niccolo, Katarina, and Alfred.