“We Share The Same Breath” by Susan Isaacson | Photographic Performance GalleryTalk
The Photographic Performance was created to feature the works of artist with completed bodies of work and a strong narrative. Susan Isaacson’s exhibition We Share The Same Breath is the third of four performances to be exhibited during 2025. Susan’s exhibition is discussed in this GalleryTalk.
Artist Statement
As my daughters move on, I wrestle with the loss of their physical presence in my life. It’s as if we have traded places; they are looking forward while I am looking back. In this work, I reflect on generations past, tracing the memories of my maternal lineage through familial artifacts and handed-down apparel. I contemplate my connection to the cycles of nature. While navigating this passage, these images emerged as an expression of the invisible bonds that endure.
Susan Isaacson, 2025
Directors’ Statement
Diptychs are hard to make successfully. We first want to congratulate Susan on how well and beautifully she combined the images. In this group of images she has advantageously seen, with a clearly artful eye, both the complimentary and disparate elements in the paired images that make diptychs compelling.
There were two things we noticed in the images immediately — the choice of an autumnal color palette and elements that appeared to be generational, familial. The subject of the work being about daughters leaving the nest was perfectly alluded to with the images of dried grasses, the stuff of nests. The use of the colors yellow and ochre and buff, the colors of an autumn landscape, give the diptychs a wistful, slightly melancholic, or contemplative feel. An emotional response familiar to any parent with grown children. The addition of generational artifacts further bolstered the emotional impact of the work.
In our discussion of the images with Susan she used the words “Ephemeral and Eternal” as descriptors of the project. These two words perfectly explain the images and also remind us of their undeniable, and universal quality.
Thank you Susan for giving us all the opportunity to peek a bit into your world and see some of our own.
Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully
August, 2025
Bio
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 with 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 a represented artist at Perspective Gallery in Evanston IL, where she has mounted three solo exhibitions. 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 her project, 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.
website: susanisaacsonphotography.com
instagram: @sbisaacson