On September 8, atop The Standard, High Line, BFA celebrated its Five Year Anniversary. Co-founders Billy Farrell, David Prutting, Joe Schildhorn, and Neil Rasmus paid proper tribute to their friends and clients by providing many of the night’s highlights, including: the soon-to-come service “BFA BOX” where you could snap a series of pictures, and have them printed or emailed to you; a custom bar thanks to Milagro Tequila, Heineken, Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, and Reyka Vodka; lively music DJed by Mia Moretti, DJ Ruckus, Jus Ske, and Stretch Armstrong and Grey Wattz; a custom dance floor showcasing some of BFA’s most iconic images; life-sized images of the founders alongside the show’s walls; and a high-resolution projection rotating more than 1.6 million BFA images on The Standard’s rooftop for all of lower Manhattan to enjoy too.
In addition to all of the posted photographs, photo taking, and image-tagging that took place, BFA also created a visual timeline for their past five years of successful business. Fixed on the windows overlooking lower Mahattan were photos in their designated years. Some of the world’s most noticeable images from 2010-2015 were on display, highlighting their year of fun.
Beyoncé, Justin Beiber, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Anna Wintour, Naomi Campbell, and many more famous faces that were once shot by BFA were on display as the night’s most recognizable party art—and they were seen, scattered throughout time, at different moments of recognition within their lives. As Andy Warhol once said, and as BFA displayed: “The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.”
Known as the one-stop shop for content creation, and as one of the industry’s most trusted names for image sourcing, BFA celebrated with special guests like designer Rebecca Minkoff, musician Nas, One Management’s president and photographer Scott Lipps, and DJ and fitness fiancés Hannah Bronfman and Brendan Fallis. The night was also sponsored with sweet give-away gift bags with modern gift cards from companies like Madewell, Kiehl’s, Glamsquad, Cole Haan and UberEats.
BFA, after 5 years, has rightfully proved that images do matter.