Digital Camera News

DCI Featured Interview: Benedict Fernandez

Benedict Fernandez recently spoke with digitalcamerainfo about his career and his friends in photography. When Fernandez, who recently turned 70, recounts his own career, his stories seem to jump from one bit of good luck to another, and from one generous friend to the next. Fernandez really has rubbed shoulders with giants – Alexei Brodovitch, Richard Avedon, Hiro, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus, Lisette Model, Minor White, Ansel Adams, Bernice Abbott, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Cornell Capa popped up in our conversation.

Of course, looking through Fernandez's photographs indicates that he made the most of his good fortune – when he fell into a plum assignment, he came back with photos that do it justice.

Fernandez shot for national media, taking some of the most memorable images of Martin Luther King, jr. His book, In Opposition, documents 1960s protest movements. He was also a prominent educator, establishing the Photography department at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Our interview picks up Fernandez's story as he began his professional career. A wedding photographer at the Plaza Hotel had offered to train him, but tries to send him packing because Fernandez showed up in oxblood shoes:

Fernandez: ...He says, "Leave now!" I said, "What?" He said, "Your shoes are not black!" I said, "but they're dark..." He said, "leave now!" I was so angry because I thought he was playing games with me, so I ran out, and I went home and came by subway and bus and all that. I changed my shoes, jumped in the car and drove back, and I got there in like 20 minutes – a ridiculously short time, and miracle of miracles, I found a parking space. I went up and he was so surprised that he said, "Okay. You've got black shoes. Remember, if you're coming on a job, always dress proper." So he had me holding the lights and about four weeks went by and at first he didn't pay me and then he paid me a pittance, and so on.

And then he says, "I have a small job in the White and Gold Suite," which is a small room for about 50 people. He says, "I'm going to send you on your first job," so he sends me on my first job. It turns out it's my high school advisor, and he is so surprised that one of his students is working at the Plaza, that, boy he bought a ton of pictures, and that cemented my job with Darlene Studios at the Plaza.

One day I showed up, and he says, "I don't know what the hell's going on but go downstairs, and when a limousine comes up, and these guys come out, these young kids, take pictures of them."

I said okay, and went down with a Rolleiflex, and I waited and waited, and a limousine came up, and there were thousands of teen-aged girls screaming, and the police came in, and I was in front, taking pictures of them there and in the elevator going up, and it turns out to have been the Beatles.

I took my father to see Jose Greco...

DCI: The dancer?

Fernandez: The flamenco dancer, yes. My father is Spanish, and he was excited. So I gave my father a telephoto lens, and he stayed in the back and photographed from there, and I took my camera with a wide-angle lens, and I went up to the stage. So I started taking pictures, and this old man with white hair came up, and he said, "do you have film?" -- for his Rolleiflex -- and I said, "yeah, sure," and I gave him a bunch of color film – 2 ¼ square color film – and I just kept photographing, and he turns around at the end of the performance, and he says, "you know, you're a nice kid."

Well, you know, so what?

And he said, "Thank you for the film. Do you have a portfolio?"

--Yeah

"Can you see me tomorrow?"

So I came the next day, with my portfolio from the camera club. He was sort of a camera club photographer, and his best friend was Peggy Guggenheim, who put up the money for Lewison Stadium. He had carte blanche there. So he looked at my work, and he said, "this is very interesting. I'm going to introduce you to a friend of mine."

I said, "Okay who's the friend?"

"He's a very famous teacher named Alexei Brodovitch."