Ilisa Katz Rissman

Suspended is an on-going portrait series that grew organically from witnessing my own children's transformation toward adolescence. This process has continually sparked a curiosity, as I have attempted to capture their beauty and power, mixed with emotional complexities; I will often spend considerable time observing both behavior and body language before photographing. They are perceptibly caught in flux between confidence and insecurity, responsibility and leisure, and maturity and innocence. There is often an interesting push and pull between what is revealed and what is withheld, as a perfect storm of contradictions are revealed. Ironically the immense power of youth is often obvious to the viewer but impervious to the subject.