Photography Students visit New York City

BA Photography student Olivia shares her inspiring experience on BCU’s trip to New York. From collaborating with fashion students at The Pratt Institute to capturing unique designs in Brooklyn, the opportunity boosted her confidence and shaped her creative journey.

In February 2025, the Arts, Design and Media courses at BCU were given the opportunity to go to New York to explore its artistic and creative culture, offering inspiration to their individual projects. With the State being widely recognised as a global centre for fashion and arts and me exploring editorial fashion within my BA Photography degree, this was something I couldn't miss out on, especially at such a reasonable price.  

My lecturer had arranged for his students to visit The Pratt Institute, a world-renowned Fashion College situated in Brooklyn, to collaborate with their students, photographing samples as a way of documenting the design process for the garments they were to make. After the second day, I was set up with a second-year student named Devon, who had offered to model her completed designs.

This was my favourite part of the trip: being able to create those connections with people across the globe and also help to bring Devon's concepts to life was something I found really rewarding and helped to improve my confidence massively. Not to mention, I found Brooklyn to be a really beautiful place to visit that was surprisingly tranquil in contrast to the vibrant energy of Manhattan and there was also this incredible pizza place (Luigi's pizzeria), which we went to after one of our sessions at Pratt. 

For anyone contemplating going on this trip, I'd say just do it. I was nervous at first but quickly realised an opportunity like this would never come around again, and the benefits have definitely transpired within my work. 

Thanks again Joe Miles for organising the Photography aspect of the trip and BCU!