Central Park Zoo Engagement Session: Caroline and Justin realized about two weeks before their Rocky Mountain wedding, that they never had official pictures taken.

They hired us for an edgy style that was unexpected but still real. But where would it be shot? The couple knew they wanted it to be in the park, but we realized that the park alone wasn’t enough.

It had to be fine tuned. After a conference call from separate states the trio determined that reenacting the location of one of their first dates was a the perfect idea.

Caroline loved the zoo, and Justin wooed her by taking her there on one of their first dates. That was it! We were shooting at the zoo.

The engagement session started at Nespresso on Madison Avenue where they had morning coffee.  Then it was off to the park on foot where favorite exhibits awaited.

What is the history of the Central Park Zoo?

Economic and public opinion came together to force the City to make a decision about the future of not only Central Park Zoo but also the facilities in Prospect Park and Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and in 1980 Parks entered into an agreement with the now Wildlife Conservation Society to manage all three City-run zoos.

The three zoos required a great deal of private financing. And several big backers emerged like Lila Acheson Wallace along with her husband Dewitt of Reader’s Digest. The Wallace Foundation has given billions of dollars to charitable causes.

And nearly everyone agreed that it was inhumane to keep large zoo animals in such a small zoo, what to do with the new facility was an open question. Some advocated for a model farm, where city kids could see domestic rather than exotic animals. In effect this reprised earlier ideas dating to the farm gardens in the 1910s and 1920s and the mobile farm gardens in the 1950s.

By the same token, another idea was to convert the zoo to an insect zoo, which was abandoned in lieu of the public’s fixation on large animals. In the end, the zoo kept polar bears and sea lions. In fact, the sea lion pool became a little bigger. But most of the larger animals like zebras, bears, and elephants were transferred to other zoos.