A New Lens on Prospect Park
October 27, 2026
Prospect Park is many things to the people who love it: a source of inspiration, a space to unwind, a way to connect with nature. For one high school photographer, it’s the starting point for all of that and so much more. 17-year-old Isabelle Ginsberg decided to turn her passion for photography and her love of the park into a force for good. Inspired by park walks with her mother, photography professor Lauren Walsh, Isabelle set out to document life in Brooklyn’s Backyard throughout a full year. Ginsberg and her mom were moved by the way the park served not just as artistic inspiration, but as a way to manage the stressors of life.
“Starting a year and a half ago, we would do walks every Saturday or Sunday in the park, partly as a way to share time one-on-one and de-stress. Teenage lives are busy, adult lives are busy, so it’s nice to slow down and connect,” Walsh said.
By the end of her project, Ginsberg had hundreds of photos. With support from her mother, Isabelle hosted a community print sale, and raised over $4,000 for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a cause with a personal connection, as Ginsberg’s father was diagnosed with cancer and is now in remission. Ginsberg also used the community print sale as a chance to survey people about how the park impacts their mental health. After analyzing the results, Ginsberg said she saw a positive connection between the two.
“I find being in the park very calming and peaceful and I think that’s how other people feel too,” Ginsberg said. “Based on the surveys, people who spend time daily in the park have lower stress levels.”
While she was very familiar with Prospect Park from having grown up in and around it, Ginsberg said the project changed how she saw the park.
“I definitely started noticing the small things that you might just pass by, but when you take a picture of it, it looks really beautiful,” Ginsberg said. This includes the stone arches and bridges that offer new views of the landscape, which are hallmarks of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s signature design for Prospect Park.
For nearly 40 years, Prospect Park Alliance has undertaken the restoration and maintenance of many of the park’s original structures and landscape designs, ensuring that future generations can have the same access to natural beauty in the heart of Brooklyn that has been available since the park’s opening in 1867. While millions of visitors pass over these structures every year, Ginsberg’s photography gives people the opportunity to admire them in a new light.
The photographs depict the varied and lively scenes of Prospect Park in all four seasons, from the first blossoms of spring and long summer days to dramatic fall foliage and the quiet beauty of wintry landscapes. Walsh said that through her daughter’s year-round photography, she saw the magic of the changing landscape more clearly.
“I feel like you can be in the same exact place, but depending on the season, the feeling can be so different. The park reinvents itself all the time,” Walsh said.
Ginsberg and her mom continue to take walks through Prospect Park, taking photos, connecting with their neighbors and each other, and enjoying time in nature.
“There’s so many benefits from going to the park,” Ginsberg said. “I think it could improve every part of your life.”