📸For Your 👀 Only:

In Plain Air

Irina Rozovsky

With two mass shootings within days of each other, it's been another tough week.. But that’s why it’s important to have forms of escape. So we're here to highlight a new book by photographer Irina Rozovsky that epitomizes springtime, of going outdoors and that wonderful moment when the world seems to open up after a long winter.

In Plain Air examines Prospect Park, one of Brooklyn’s largest parks, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (of Central Park fame). Being able to watch and eavesdrop on other visitors, and to marvel at humanity, is one of the best features of a good park. Rozovsky has an uncanny eye for capturing this feeling, highlighting myriad uses for public outdoor spaces in her images of people napping, families lunching, and moments of quiet contemplation in scenes that feel both staged and stumbled upon.

Irina Rozovsky

"This kaleidoscope, so serene and sublime, feels almost unreal, like a mirage. To make sure it's true, I take a picture," she says in her artist statement. She worked on the project for almost a decade, discovering different nooks and revisiting well-loved haunts, noticing that each section in the park had a distinct feel. I am unbearably snobby about parks (especially those in Brooklyn), but I have to admit that Rozovsky's work is pretty magical.

In an interview with the Guardian, Rozovsky observed that the sense of openness among people seemed to lessen over the course of the project, as social media became more prevalent and the public became more image-conscious — and more guarded. "I think now it might be more difficult. There’s more social tension and, with the pandemic, everyone is on edge," she said.

Parks are one of the few places where people can safely mingle with strangers, and it's clinically proven that being in nature is good for you. So go outside. Enjoy the fresh air. Be kind to those around you. We're all in this together.