experience

By andy PrisBylla
Benedict J. Fernandezs life has followed a path where many fear to tread, combining his interest of social change with his natural ability to document the world around him. as a photojournalist he has covered many historical events of the last century, while as an educator he has helped to mold many young minds through his innovative photography programs and workshops.

& Dreams

aBove: Pentagon demonstration, Washington d.c., november 1967 oPPosite: Fernandez in his gallery in Hoboken, new Jersey Photo by the author

f you ever have the good fortune life, capturing the ghosts of ellis island with to sit down with photographer and his camera, or photographing the samurai of educator Benedict J. Fernandez, his Japan, his camera is an active participant. His stories are just as rich and interestimages, even in their quietest of moments, ing as his photographs. inside the have an energy. You feel the immediacy of the almanac Gallery in Hoboken, new moment, and the experience is a potent one Jersey a photo exhibition gallery founded for the viewer. its experience that matters to by Fernandez and his wife, siiri his master Fernandez, who prefers to call himself a phostorytelling becomes apparent with each tale to-anthropologist rather than a photojournalthat illustrates his 50 plus years in the world ist. a journalist is someone that writes and of photography. i grew up in spanish Hartalks about photography. i live it. Basically i lem. my mother was italian and my father was live it. i have to have something happening to spanish. We lived in quote the ghetto which make the pictures. i dont sit down and take turned out to be the best place for me. it was the camera and say im going to take pictures. a mixture of all kinds of people some very click. click. click. no, something has to hapaffluent, some very poor pen in order for me to but we were all mixed. want to take the picJews, catholics, protestures, because i dont i don't sit down and take tants, Blacks, Whites, or write. i live. the camera and say i'm go- readBorn on april chinese, so that was a positive thing. For exing to take pictures. click. 5, 1936 in the Hisample: Third avenue was of east click. click. no, something panic section York, a dividing line. now my Harlem, new name is Fernandez, and on has to happen in order for Fernandez turned to the west side of Third avnot only me to want to take the pic- photographyexpression enue they spoke spanish. as a form of On the east side of Third tures, because i don't read but as a means of comave they spoke italian. so munication. Basically or write. i live. i was able to survive by i suffer from a malady being able to cross either called dyslexia. i had side and speak the language. so that was a trouble reading, and they sent me to all kinds technique of survival, which was important of remedial reading classes and so on in the because when you leave the ghetto and you school system in new York. They could never get out into the real world, its all a matter of comprehend why i could speak so well and survival. so i had tools in which to survive, yet not be able to read well. They didnt know and photography became one of my tools. what dyslexia was at the time. Then all of a Fernandezs life has followed a path where sudden, the Bureau of child Guidance started many fear to tread, combining his interest giving me special testing and they came up of social change with his natural ability to with this problem called dyslexia. so i had document the world around him. as a photo develop techniques in which i was able to tojournalist he has covered many historical develop reading techniques. i dont read in events of the last century, while as an educaa normal way. i studied sounds and things of tor he has helped to mold many young minds that sort, and i put together words like and or through his innovative photography programs the, and these are words that i memorized. so and workshops. Whether its covering the pro- i dont sound them out. i have a vocabulary test movements of the 1960s, documenting of words that i know what they are. i look at Dr. martin Luther King in the last year of his them as pictures. so thats where you can say

BeloW: anti-vietnam-War demonstration, new york, april, 1967

aBove: Martin luther King, new york, april, 1967

caPtion:

aBove: Washington, d.c., 1965 leFt: veterans anti-War demonstration, Washington d.c., 1969.

Words are images for me, and thats made a big difference.

aBove: Man in a White suit, Puerto rico, 1976

my reading capability was formulated in the technique of photography. Words are images for me, and thats made a big difference. Its through the affliction of dyslexia that Fernandez learned a valuable lesson that he has utilized throughout his life. its something that dyslexia does for you. its a philosophical thing that i have developed. Whats important is not the problem, its the solution thats important. Upon graduating from high school, Fernandez entered the workforce by way of the shipyards. Fernandez found work as an operating engineer and crane operator at the Bethlehem steel shipyard. its during his time here that Fernandez photographed his fellow coworkers in what was to become his first major photographic portfolio riggers. His photographic attention wasnt the only thing that the shipyards captured, however, as he holds up the thumb on his right hand. The top knuckle where the nail cuticle should be is missing, leaving a sewn-stump in its place. The result of an accident while working. Dont bite your nails, he says with a laugh and a grin. Fernandez eventually moved on to a position at the Brooklyn navy Yard, but was blindsided when operations shut down in 1963, and he found himself unemployed. Deciding to make his love for photography his new profession, Fernandez started working bar-mitzvahs and weddings. While attending a Jose Greco performance with his father at Lewisohn stadium in new York, Fernandez was photographing when an older gentleman approached asking if he had any film to spare for his camera. Fernandez obliged and gave the man a few rolls of film. So I keep shooting, and at the end of thing he called me back and said, You know i could have had you thrown out. Im the official photographer. But you were so generous with me by giving me film, I would like to do you a favor.
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This favor ended up being the chance to niques to gain access to the groups and capmeet legendary graphic designer alexey Broture the pictures he needed. When i started dovitch, art director for Harpers Bazaar and photographing the protest movement, i went creator of the influential Design Laboratory to a demonstration in Washington. so i put an advanced workshop for photographers and a flower in my hair because it was the hipdesigners wanting to push the boundaries of pies. i forgot about it and continued on to see design practices. Through this meeting FerGeorge Lincoln rockwell in arlington. That nandez was granted a scholarship to Design was the american nazi and the nazi headLaboratory, which instigated a contentious yet quarters was in arlington, Virginia. Just over fruitful relationship with Brodovitch. the bridge from Washington, D.c. i walked i guess i related to Brodovitch because into Nazi Headquarters with a flower in my i could deal with the problems. i mean Broear and i almost got killed! he says with a dovitch was a pain in the ass. i mean he was laugh. One of the things i used to do all the chasing you, he was crying, time was i carried a physically he would cry button on my right Brodovitch always talked because something went lapel that said Bomb wrong. The next minute Hanoi. my left lapel about the idea. Whats he was ready to hit you. said Bring our troops important is not the image, Home. so as long as i grew up with that. my mother was like that. i remembered left or its the idea. the idea will Fernandez spent the right, i would save manufacture the image. next several years working my ass. with Brodovitch. While he His visual docuhad already been taking mentation of the prophotographs of the ensutest movement would ing protest movements that were taking place ultimately culminate in the wildly successful in the 60s, it was through Brodovitch that exhibition conscience: the Ultimate Weapon at his project found its most valuable support. the George eastman House in 1968. curated Brodovitch had an apartment on the second by nathan Lyons, the show became the most floor of 15th Street & Park Avenue. I went to controversial exhibition in the museums see Brodovitch and i was showing him pichistory. Beaumont newhall was the director tures, and from his window is Union square. of eastman House, and nathan was his asUnion square is where the socialists and the sistant. Beaumont was going to do an exhibit communists were coming out and protestabout the sky, but when he looked at my work ing, and i started photographing there. so he said he would give me a week. The newsBrodovitch looks out and says, This is your papers, everyone at eastman House, pushed project. so Brodovitch got a kick out of it. He the event because this was the moment, this supported my idea. Brodovitch always talked was 1968. everything was going crazy, with about the idea. Whats important is not the the chicago Demonstration and all that stuff. image, its the idea. The idea will manufacture Well, it just exploded. nathan was excited. the image. Beaumont said, Okay, well go from one week Over the course of the next several years, to three weeks. Well, the United states inforFernandez covered the protest movement in mation agency came and other organizations a detail rarely seen up to this point; examincame, and it went from three weeks to six ing such groups as the anti-War movement, months. pro-War movement, nazis, neo-nazis, Black among the photographs that appeared in power, socialists, capitalists, and everything conscience: the Ultimate Weapon was a series in between. Fernandez utilized creative techof pictures taken of martin Luther King, who

Fernandez photographed during the last year of his life. Fernandez would later create an influential exhibition of this time entitled countdown to eternity, which traveled to 18 cities across the United states under the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation and the manchester craftsmens Guild of pittsburgh (where a permanent display of the exhibition is still housed). i learned more from Kings attitude than i learned from King. i had a situation where i was having dinner with King at his house, and these people were sitting there and asking him to make a demonstration. He was breaking these things on his food. so all of a sudden they see this, and they start to eat them too. Well, theyre hot chili peppers. Very hot. These people are drinking water, trying to put out the fire, and Kings watching and im enjoying it. He says to me,

You like hot food? You know its good for your digestive system, and its good for you in the summer because it gets you warm so you cool off, and in the winter it keeps you warm so you warm up. and that was King (laughs). i worked with him, and i stayed there three days photographing him. came around everyday to his house and he let me work with him. King was a very interesting character. He was killed too early. pointing at one of his iconic images of King on the wall in the gallery, Fernandez expresses how photography can not only document social change but influence it as well. This portrait of King has gotten me more opportunities. What has happened is that people see these images and it triggers ideas, so thats what does it. if a picture has no capability of instigating anything, than nothing happens.

aBove: Cockfight, Puerto rico, 1976

so there are some pictures that are just that: a floor of about 35 to 40 enlargers. This bepictures. But there are photographs that are came the new school of photography at the statements, and that picture of King is a parsons school of Design. Then things just statement. took off, and it became very big. i said later, While Fernandez captured the world Why dont we got to europe? so we went to around him with his camera, he also capeurope and i set up a class in paris. Then i tured the imaginations of countless students did the Focus program, which was a one week through his progressive educational work. concentrated photography program. i created as the photographer at the esteemed public the Leica Medal of Excellence. The first group Theater created by Joe papp, Fernandez was of people to get the Leica medal of excellence given room in the were Jill Krementz, Jill Freedbasement to estabman, and mary ellen mark. it lish the photoFilm was quite an experience. Workshop. Here, Fernandez credits his Fernandez taught imagination and the trust photography to of others in the success of community youth, his photographic tutelage. i free of charge. mean, i would dream things many of the attendup. i had the benefactor of ees went on to sucthe engel Trust. i would cessful careers in dream up something, they various industries. would say okay, and that was pulitzer prize winit. if i had to go to commitning photographer tees and all that, it wouldnt King was a very interesting have happened. so the reason angel Franco was a student, as was acit happened was because you character. He was killed claimed architectural had a guy with a fertile imagitoo early. designer Llewellyn nation, and i had an organizaLennon. i dont tion that just backed it. Thats teach in the way of what made the difference. You read this or you read that, because i Back in Hoboken, Fernandez has come dont read. i teach by experience. What made full circle. sitting in the almanac Gallery it work is that it was not done traditionally. that houses his immense body of work, his 75 One day at the workshop, a young man year old body in no way reflects his youthful came in and asked Fernandez if he could do mind and spirit. maturity sucks, he says with something like this at a regular university. a smile. When asked what advice he has for The young man turned out to be michael up and coming documentary photographers, engel, the assistant to the Dean of the new his answer is honest and to the point. Work. school of social research, and soon FernanDont ask questions, work your problems out. dez was developing classes in photography. in other words, if you ask somebody, theyll michael never gave me trouble, the departtell you. But if you explore yourself, and ment ran, and he put up the money. anytime answer your question with your exploration, i would dream up an idea, he would put up thats the way to do it. Getting experience. the money. and it took off! in about four Basically, have an experience. years it was the biggest photographic school. We bought out parsons in 1970. We got a new building, and we went from ten enlargers to interview sponsored by photophilathropy.org
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aBove: anti-Black demonstration, chicago, 1966 oPPosite: Martin luther King, april, 1967