Fernando bengoechea born

The stunning images of photographer Fernando Bengoechea—who died tragically in a tsunami nearly two decades ago while in Sri Lanka—live on in “Woven Together,” a poignant collaboration between brothers debuting in Hudson.

By Tara Solomon

Back in the early 2000s, few fine art photographers were as influential as Fernando Bengoechea, a handsome and charismatic Argentine whose bold black-and-white images were embraced by both art world cognoscenti and the glitterati and exhibited worldwide. His “Karma Tree” series—depicting the majestic, gnarled Joshua trees of Palm Springs’ high desert—were snapped up by A-List collectors including Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Tommy Hilfiger, Naomi Campbell, Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan.

In December 2004, Bengoechea’s life was cut tragically short when a devastating tsunami struck Sri Lanka, killing 225,000 people. The Buenos Aires-born lensman was on vacation with his partner, celebrity interior designer (and Oprah Winfrey Show regular) Nate Berkus, who miraculously survived the catastrophe. Bengoechea was just 39. His body was never found.

The loss was especially hard on Bengoechea’s brother Marcelo, a creative director who worked alongside his younger brother on brand campaigns. The two often traveled together, Fernando taking his art tools with him as he worked late into the night on his “Woven Photographs”—a technique he pioneered in the late 1990s that involved cutting two identical giclée prints into narrow strips, and then weaving them together by hand to create a unique, one-of-a-kind image.

“I think it brought him calm and peace,” Marcelo says, who taught himself Fernando’s signature photo-weaving over the course of a decade to honor his brother and keep his art alive. In 2019, Marcelo established The Studio at Fernando Bengoechea in Encinitas, CA with the mission of “preserving, reviving and evolving” Fernando’s unique artistic legacy.

On September 2, “Woven Tog

A massive Tsunami took the life of internationally acclaimed photographer Fernando Bengoechea in December 2004. He was vacationing in Sri Lanka with partnerNate Berkus. Nate miraculously survived the disaster. Fernando's body was never found. He was 39.

You can learn a little more about it from thisOprah Winfreyshow.

We are so incredibly touched by the way Nate Berkus describes Fernando, their love and how he changed his life for the better in his book The Things That Matter. In the book, Nate also shares the incredible Tsunami survival experience. Here is the excerpt of this amazing read.

"Fernando and I met in 2003 at a photo shoot for O at Home magazine. He had been hired to photograph the makeover process of a living room I was brought in to redo. How many people are lucky enough to have the very first meeting of a great love documented by the nature of what they do professionally? The day I met him, I could see, through his photographs, how he saw me, and I remember thinking, Things don't get any better than this.

Fernando was audacious and complicated and spontaneous and sophisticated and charismatic and demanding and graceful and volatile and extravagant and occasionally impossible. And when he walked into the room, he pretty much owned it. He was also contemplative and nurturing and soulful and insightful and intuitive and deeply kind. Our attraction was instantaneous and it was powerful. One week after we began dating, Fernando flew to Chicago to visit me. When he walked into the apartment, I naturally assumed he would be bowled over by its scale and design, and he was . . . only not quite in the way I imagined. In his typically contrarian style, Fernando said, "You are a more interesting person than this. I'm surprised that you live someplace so traditional."

Fernando always woke up earlier than I did. And after that first night in my apartment, I walked into the living room to find that while I was sleeping, he had rearranged all the furni