Benedict J. Fernandez was an award-winning photojournalist raised in East Harlem. His  Black and White photographs captured the images of the civil rights and antiwar protest movements of the 1960s. Fernandez was recognized as a distinguished photographer having been awarded a Fulbright research fellowship in photography and a Guggenheim fellowship.  His photos are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, among other museums and private collections.  Known by his friends and the community as Ben, he played an important role mentoring upcoming young Latino photographers. On January 31, 2021, Ben died in Oxford, New York. He was 84.  He was married to Siiri Aarismaa, since 1957.  She survives him, along with a son, a daughter, grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter. (Bio based on NY Times article written by Sam Roberts, March 3 2021.)