Benedict J. Fernandez was born in Manhattan on April 5, 1936. His father migrated from Puerto Rico and his mother Palma was of Italian heritage. Benedict was raised in East Harlem. As a child, he struggled with reading. Benedict later learned that he had undiagnosed dyslexia. Receiving a Brownie camera as a gift enabled Benedict to find his creative voice, and changed the trajectory of his life.

Throughout his childhood and young adulthood, Benedict’s circle of friends was very diverse, including young men who were African-American, Jewish, and Muslim. He learned to listen to and empathize with their experiences of discrimination. His friends inspired him to find his own way to challenge social prejudices later through his photography.

After graduating from Haaren High School, Benedict started working as an apprentice, and later, as an operating engineer/crane operator for Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Hoboken. Benedict’s father helped him to get the job, where he also worked since 1941. Benedict worked in Hoboken for four years and developed deep friendships with the other Shipyard workers. His first major photography project was a set of stills of his colleagues in Hoboken entitled “Riggers.” He pays tribute to the sense of warmth and family present among this close circle.

Afterwards, Benedict took a job at Brooklyn Navy Yard. However, his fate changed when he was laid off from the position and the yard closed. He was then introduced to Alexey Brodovitch, the well-known art director of Harper’s Bazaar. Alexey was also a founder of the Design Laboratory, a workshop for photographers and designers. Through Alexey, Benedict received a scholarship to the Design Laboratory. He also began working at the Parsons School of Design, where he eventually helped to establish a Photography Department. Benedict had found his calling.

Benedict developed his power as a photographer by documenting street protests of the 1960’s, especially related to the Poor People’s Campaign and draft card burnings in protest of the Vietnam War. His striking black-and-white photos captured the intensity and sense of tumult of this moment in American history.

Benedict relayed: “When the protest movement developed, it hit a kinship in me that I felt I had to record and expose. I developed and thought it was necessary that I stood for something, and that’s where the protest photography became important.” 

As his reputation grew as a photographer, Benedict befriended Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Benedict visited Dr. King’s home in Atlanta, and got to know his family. Benedict developed a portfolio of 80 black-and-white prints entitled Countdown to Eternity: Photographs of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which capture portraits of his life in the year before Dr. King’s assassination. 

Benedict was very cognizant of the special opportunities he received as a young man thanks to his mentor, Alexey. Benedict was determined to pay it forward for the next generation. He helped to found the Photo Film Workshop, which he established in the basement of Joseph Papp’s Public Theater in Manhattan. He offered courses free of charge to young photographers. Among his students, he taught Angel Franco, who went on to work as a staff photographer for The New York Times, and won the Pulitzer Prize.

Among his many accolades, Benedict received a senior Fulbright Research Fellowship in photography and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He served as a Senior Fellow in Photography at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. 

Benedict’s work is housed in permanent collections at institutions that include the Smithsonian, The National Portrait Gallery, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Norton Simon Museum of Art, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The King Center, University of Toyo, and Bilbioteque Nationale in Paris. 

Instrumental to his success was Benedict’s family, including his wife Siiri Aarismaa, his son, Benedict IV, and daughter, Tiina Polvere. Benedict’s lineage has grown to now include five grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

Benedict died on January 31, 2021. He lived to the age of 84.

The Hoboken Historical Museum is immensely proud to showcase the work of Benedict J. Fernandez, and preserve his legacy of using photography as an act of activism for the next generation.

We would like to thank our sponsors BCB Bank, Ironstate, and the New Jersey Historical Commission for supporting this exhibit.