CBH Talk | Photographer Jamel Shabazz on Prospect Park: A Brooklyn Oasis

Renowned photographer Jamel Shabazz returns to the borough that has shaped his life and art with his most recent book, Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025. This expansive, meditative volume captures the heart and soul of Brooklyn through one of its most beloved communal spaces. Join Shabazz as he shares a wide selection of images and reflects on their stories in a conversation led by photographer, curator, and writer Laylah Amatullah Barrayn.

Long before he became celebrated for his street photography, Shabazz served in the U.S. military and later as a corrections officer for twenty years. Prospect Park offered refuge from the pressures of those environments—a place to find balance, community, and inner peace. His book’s introduction, “My Oasis in Brooklyn,” speaks to the grounding role the park has played in his life. Since 1980, he has returned again and again with his camera, documenting the park’s vibrant pulse.

The collection features his signature portraiture of Brooklynites—Afro-Caribbean percussionists at Drummers Grove, dog walkers and chess players, elders gathered on benches, and families savoring quiet moments together. Paired with these intimate encounters are lyrical landscape views that reveal the park’s lesser-seen calm and natural beauty.

Together, these photographs illuminate Prospect Park as both a bustling cultural crossroads and a tranquil sanctuary. In revealing a profoundly personal dimension of Shabazz’s practice, the book offers a compelling testament to resilience, fellowship, and the power of shared public space in the life of a city.