Ilse has always been attracted to surreal imagery and believes that photography as a medium lends a kind of realism to some of these fantasies and ideas, allowing it to exist in closer relationship to the viewer. She loves that it suggests the possibility of an unseen truth. Shooting underwater seemed like the logical next step to finding a balance between the surreal world and her reality. To Ilse, water is a symbolic birthing place where herself and her clients can explore renewal.