Bianca Kosoy

Bianca Kosoy

For Bianca Kosoy, Parsons ’93, attending Parsons wasn’t so much a decision as a foregone conclusion. She discovered the school as a high school freshman, flipping through Parsons catalogues in her art teacher’s meticulously organized supply room. The work looked like the world she wanted to be part of.

“I saw those catalogues and thought, That’s where I’m going,” Kosoy says. “It wasn’t aspirational. In my mind, it was already decided.”

She arrived in New York as a photography major with curiosity, confidence, and a clear visual point of view. Parsons gave her a place to push those ideas further—and access to a creative world that was bigger, more demanding, and more exciting than anything she had ever imagined.

New York City itself became part of the education. Kosoy photographed and participated in AIDS protests for New York–based queer publications, interned at Interview magazine, and booked work with major modeling agencies while still a student. Parsons took her well beyond the city, too: a summer at Parsons Paris was followed by a Time magazine and Nikon-sponsored trip to Russia, where she became the first fashion photographer selected for their photojournalism program.

Then came an opportunity she nearly missed.

During a school break, Kosoy was invited to photograph President Bill Clinton’s first openly gay inaugural ball. Cutting her vacation short didn’t sound appealing, but her parents insisted: “You’re going. Period.” She arrived in Washington with a press pass, twenty bricks of film, and access to the celebrity-studded VIP lounge. One of her photographs was later included in the official Time Warner Inaugural Retrospective hardcover book.

“I didn’t have any credentials yet. I was a junior in college. All these established photographers had their agencies and publications listed with their credits. Mine simply said, ‘Attends the Parsons School of Design.’”

Another surreal moment came through Absolut Vodka’s global photography competition, which selected one of Kosoy’s photographs for its iconic campaign. The image ran as a full-page advertisement in American Photo magazine and appeared in the following year’s Parsons course catalogue. For the teenager who had discovered Parsons through those very catalogues, seeing her own photograph in one was an absurdly perfect full-circle moment.

After graduating, Kosoy returned to California and pivoted from fashion photography to graphic design and art direction. She ultimately became an executive creative director, creating and leading major brand work and campaigns for companies including Equinox, bareMinerals, and eBay.

“Photography taught me how to see,” she says. “Composition, tension, typography, casting, light, restraint—everything I eventually did as a creative director came out of that foundation.”

That career ultimately gave Kosoy something she valued as much as professional success: freedom. She retired at fifty and eventually moved to Sonoma County, fulfilling a childhood dream.

When she purchased her home there, she established a trust and began to think seriously about what she wanted her estate to represent.

Parsons came immediately to mind.

“Parsons is woven into the architecture of my life. It kicked open doors. It gave me access, opportunity, extraordinary experiences, and a much bigger canvas.”

Her planned gift aims to extend that same access to the next generation of creatives.

“If what I leave behind can give another creative access to a world they might not otherwise get to enter, that feels meaningful to me.”

For Kosoy, that is ultimately what legacy means.

“If a place genuinely changed the trajectory of your life, you remember that,” she reflects. “And if you’re lucky enough to reach a point where you can turn around and hold the door open for somebody coming up behind you—why wouldn’t you?”