Pic credit: Brooklyn Paper/ Lauren Walsh, Isabelle Ginsberg
In 2020, when her father was diagnosed with brain cancer, she experienced her whole world crumbling. She thought about her dad, who is now in remission, after being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2020. By September, a year’s worth of Prospect Park moments had become 30 framed prints and a community event.
Because my dad had cancer, we just had the idea to have a fundraiser, “And. Because it’s a cause really important to me,” she told the outlet, i felt that we should try to raise money for cancer research.
“I just started taking photos for fun,” Ginsberg told Brooklyn Paper. And as Isabelle mentioned, a couple of years back, her father had brain cancer, so on a very personal, firsthand level, she’s experienced what it means to grapple with cancer inside your family and to watch someone go through a major surgery and chemo and recovery,” Walsh said. “It started as a hobby and turned out she’s really got a very good eye,” Walsh said.
After careful curation, Isabelle Ginsberg’s photographs were framed and displayed on gallery walls at a community print sale. People could take a piece of Prospect Park home with them, but the money they spent was meant for something bigger. The proceeds were donated to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to support cancer research and patient care, a cause that was deeply personal to Ginsberg and her family. She knew what that meant. She knew what help meant at that point. This is the story of how a Brooklyn teenager turned her eye for the world into a fundraiser for cancer research. It started simply enough: weekend walks with her mother through the sprawling green space, camera in hand. Trees, wildlife, joggers, quiet corners. The kind of work a teenager might keep to themselves, posted to Instagram and filed away. But then it transformed into something else. Nearly all of them sold. Lauren Walsh, Isabelle’s mother, has spent years working in photography and exhibition curation. She noticed her daughter’s eye for composition and light. She encouraged Isabelle to share her work with the world. “I had some experience with this. What started as a simple hobby soon turned into a community service. The mother and daughter decided to support cancer research and patient care by selling these photographs. They chose Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as the beneficiary. Meanwhile, the teen is navigating the familiar territory of deciding who she might become. Photography, science, medicine and psychology are some of the subjects she is interested in.
