A global leader in photography and videography with headquarters in New York and Los Angeles, BFA was founded in 2010 by photographers Billy Farrell, Joe Schildhorn, Neil Rasmus and David X Prutting, seeking to assemble a focused and cohesive service across events coverage and content.

As an agency, BFA has been quick to innovate its offerings, adapting to answer the needs of the industry and clients, spanning emerging artists and fashion brands to award-winning media and luxury maisons. BFA now offers a full suite of content solutions, spanning specialised teams of photographers for events, architectural and, portraiture, as well as editorial and commercial videography services and short-format social video.

BFA has now set its sights on bringing its expertise to luxury-adjacent markets, including real estate and hospitality, and further building its global presence in Paris, Milan and London.

It’s a timely investment: since the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers are increasingly seeking more novel, immersive experiences, from unique dining at exclusive restaurants to one-of-a-kind stays at hotels, as stated in BoF Insights: The Lifestyle Era: Luxury’s Opportunity in Home and Hospitality. Sales in home and hospitality categories will grow at a compound annual rate of approximately 7 percent through 2026, outpacing pre-pandemic growth of 4 percent, according to market research firm Euromonitor International.

Now, BoF sits down with BFA’s managing director, Camila Zapata, and vice president of global business development, Stephanie Ketty, to explore innovation in the creative content space and how BFA is tailoring its offering to new markets.

How has BFA evolved over recent years?

CZ: The pandemic was a significant change for us. The traditional seasonality of events went away overnight, so we had to adapt, evolve and refocus the company towards the alternative content we could provide. This time gave us an opportunity to think about how we could innovate and enhance our visual storytelling as an agency. We had to consider how we could still bring value to the companies, develop their strategies and tailor packages for them.

But evolving the offering isn’t enough — you have to evolve the internal processes, the workflows, the staffing. All of that has been happening gradually at the same time. It’s allowed us the opportunity to diversify the ways in which we can work with clients and speaks to the luxury and luxury-adjacent spaces, because having all those different offerings allows you to go into different demographics.

Since then, we have expanded our service offerings to markets throughout Europe and the US. We have broadened and re-focused our talent development which serves as a key driver of the trust our clients place in the BFA name. We have also expanded syndication via our various partners with a presence in more than 150 countries and we have invested in AI solutions and technology — launching tools that improve productivity and collaboration internally and with our clients.

Which key content creation tactics and practices have emerged as a result?

SK: When it comes to content creation tactics, having a talent development department collaborating alongside leaders like Camila on the ground in key markets acts as a critical conduit — pairing brands and talent to the content types that, in this instance, act as a best fit, whether that’s a brand activation or working with their social team to execute Instagram Reels. It is about being focussed on helping them solve that narrative problem and offering a solution with consistency.

Evolving the offering isn’t enough — you have to evolve the internal processes, the workflows, the staffing.

CZ: Obviously, commercial and editorial have beautiful cinematic videos, but the short format concept has been a key area of growth. For these projects, we focused heavily on producing compelling short-form videos for their social media channels. That format produced millions of impressions — and that kind of volume helps justify why it’s so important to have these creative budgets.

How do you work with fashion businesses to find creative solutions that fit their needs?

SK: A couple of years ago, we worked with a brand whose creative strategy revolved almost entirely around their fashion shows. We collaborated with that brand to evolve its strategy across multiple activations throughout the year. Now, we also collaborate closely on featured talent and have begun to push more creative bounds. Recently, we worked together on shooting a runway on film.

We have also worked closely with another brand recently where we collaborated in a way which varied on the brand’s creative vision. Often, brand representatives will come to us and say, “We have this event, how can we complement it creatively?” An example includes the creation of a visual diary, working with a specific photographer in Tokyo. It was a completely different work product involving talent and it’s another example of how diverse our creative projects with fashion businesses have become.

CZ: Our priority is really understanding how we tell a narrative for the brand consistently across different formats. It starts with having these meetings with the brands so they understand that it’s not just about events for us. We know that certain platforms work best with certain types of content, and we enter conversations with brands with expert teams that understand Youtube and longer formats but also Instagram and Reels. We learn best practices from our fashion partnerships teams, and it’s a different offering for every single platform.

Where your photos land is important. But what’s more important is who is sharing this content, how engaging it is and how well it is performing. For us, that’s a win, in the sense that we are not forcing anyone to share our content. It just happens organically.

What opportunities does BFA see in fashion-adjacent markets and what is driving this development strategy?

SK: Collaborating creatively with brands — particularly via beautiful imagery and film — is a hugely saturated space. As a business, we are considering how to broaden our offering while retaining the depth of partnership that we have historically offered in the fashion space.

Our priority is really understanding how we tell a narrative for the brand consistently across different formats.

At BFA, we have an opportunity to bring different entities into this space of visual storytelling, which feels like an exciting growth opportunity.

For example, we began a partnership this year with the French manufacturing company Michelin, behind the iconic restaurant and hotel rating guide. They are a significant global entity and the relationship between luxury and great culinary experiences feels natural. Creatively, it’s all about telling much bigger narratives that span fashion adjacent industries too, and collaborating with like-minded partners to help us build this.

What does the expansion into new markets mean for BFA?

SK: We’re in London, Paris, Milan, and it’s a focal point of the conversation when we are talking about how to execute certain strategy concepts and what BFA is bringing to the table. It’s not just one conversation. We want to help brands get to the final product and be part of this conversation. That’s where the magic has been happening lately. These luxury-adjacent markets are so important and it’s about marrying these two things together.

CZ: Culturally, there are huge differences between the way that New York operates compared to L.A., France, Germany and London. Ultimately, it’s about trying to adapt to the surroundings.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by BFA as part of a BoF partnership.