Ben Fernandez: “The ’60s: Decade of Change” chronicles Fernandez’s career covering the protest movements (PHOTOS).: Siiri Fernandez paints a picture of her husband, the photographer Benedict J. Fernandez, as a man who communicates predominately through his images. “On our very first date he showed up with a slide projector and a tray of slides of the Brooklyn Bridge at nighttime he wanted me to see. I was properly impressed because they were amazing,” she said in a joint interview with her husband.
Siiri and Ben were married in 1957. In the beginning, photography was a hobby for Fernandez, but it soon became his profession after he was laid off from his job at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a wife and two kids to support. Fernandez credits New York Times photo editor Ursula Mahoney for giving him some assignments and supporting the way in which he looked at the world.
