EXCLUSIVE: Inside BJ Pascual’s Return to the CFDA Awards
Backstage at the CFDA Awards, there’s a moment when the air is charged enough to roast a marshmallow, the lights heat up as if ready to sparkle, and dresses fly by like fiercely opinionated clouds. Photographer BJ Pascual enters that scene; he is composed, stable, and already planning how to make a brief encounter with a celebrity appear to last forever.
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In fashion, meeting your muse can be a myth. Most photographers spend entire careers orbiting the dream without ever getting clearance to land. The fantasy sits on bucket lists that may as well be written in disappearing ink. But, Pascual strolls into the CFDA portrait studio and suddenly the impossible is on the schedule. Ask him about photographing longtime favorites, and he’ll give a quiet smile — the sort you wear when you’ve chased the ambition everyone else calls far-fetched, and then somehow ended up saying hello to it under perfect lighting.
Being invited back to photograph the CFDA Awards isn’t something he shrugs off. “It honestly felt surreal,” he says, recalling how last year’s portraits ricocheted across the internet. The applause was instant and loud, the kind that either fuels you or makes you sweat through your shirt. Perhaps understandably both. “There’s a certain pressure to outdo what you’ve already done,” he adds, but the return invitation felt like a nudge from the universe, as if wanting him to make things sharper. “Getting to return, refine the studio, and build on what we created last year is something I don’t take lightly, especially at an event that celebrates the best of American fashion.”
Preparing for a shoot like this requires the flexibility of a yogi and the foresight of a chess master. The studio has to flatter fabric and mood imaginable, all while guessing what looks will walk through the door. Then there’s the logistical scavenger hunt: new team, new gear, new city. At home in Manila, his team finishes his sentences; in New York, he’s learning braille with milliseconds to spare. But once the portraits begin, he locks into a tempo, with seasoned instincts he can only feel.
“Everything moves fast — I get three minutes at most, sometimes less than one.” In that speed-run of glamour, he grounds himself, holding onto a clear visual direction while leaving room for spontaneity you can’t storyboard. The magic, after all, has its own sense of timing. Somehow, even in that frenzy, the portraits breathe. They feel like the subjects paused the world for a heartbeat and let him look in.
Of course, there are moments that test even his composure, like Amber Valletta wearing that Versace dress — the one fashion fans know wasn’t J.Lo’s original claim to fame. “I was physically shaking,” he laughs, recounting what it’s like to suddenly face a woman whose iconic campaign was shot by Steven Meisel, one of his lifelong inspirations. Even his nerves were starstruck, but the final portrait doesn’t reveal the tremor — only reverence and razor focus.
Fundamentally, what he’s doing is translation: reading a person’s posture, the weight they bear, and the intensity of their presence. Some require movement while others require stillness. According to him, “Sometimes, it’s a collaborative effort from both sides,” and those are the photos that convey the subdued excitement of two perspectives coming together.
When asked what story these portraits collectively tell about fashion’s current chapter, he doesn’t hesitate. “Individuality,” he says. Everyone walked into the frame with their own vision and way of showing up, as if wanting to be part of history. Together, they form an era defined less by uniformity and more by the courage to stand apart. And isn’t that what the greats are meant to do?
BJ Pascual caught lightning twice, held it still long enough for the shutter to click, and left with a gallery that doesn’t merely document a night but captures the still-life of the moment.
Photographed by BJ PASCUAL FOR CFDA 2025
The post EXCLUSIVE: Inside BJ Pascual’s Return to the CFDA Awards first appeared on MEGA.
EXCLUSIVE: Inside BJ Pascual’s Return to the CFDA Awards
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