Meet Jaime Fernandez de Bernabe | Photographer & Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jaime Fernandez de Bernabe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jaime, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
When I was young, I was fascinated by special effects in movies. That led me to start, at 14 years old, my own little ventures recording short clips and trying to apply very rudimentary special effects to them. I soon realized YouTube will play a big part in my education. Although my traditional education was plenty, the fun started at night. I discovered there were way more tutorials about photography and photoshop than legit special effect tools and my journey in photography started. At the beginning, everything was fantasy, the crazier the composition the better. Once I realized some family members will not be with us forever, I started documenting more often the day to day of the family activities.

Studying business administration in college was a bit frustrating because I couldn’t see anything that would excite me in the following 10-15 years so I transferred to an Advertising and Communications major. Once I graduated, I didn’t know what to do. A college professor pointed out that my presentations and the stories I was telling through them were above the average and I should probably consider Art Direction. As soon as I found out what the job was about, I couldn’t believe that people got paid for what I considered playing.

My post grad program at Miami Ad School, which took me to San Francisco, Miami, and NYC.

Living and working in NYC as a foreign person was an explosion of all senses. Every commute became an experience and a hunt for trying to understand all people. I would stare at each individual trying to imagine what life would be as them being the main character of their story. The further the story from mine, the more attraction I had for that subject. That’s when I fell in love with street photography.

Once I moved to LA, portrait photography took over my career for a long while. Instagramers, youtuber, models, actors. Anyone who was a good subject and was willing to minimally pay for it, I would accept to get more experience and exposure. In the meantime, I met Chema Suarez. Another Spanish person living in Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a content creator. Working together over the years, has taken us to many different countries and collaborated with well known brands globally.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As a Creative Director in Advertising, you don’t really get to pick your projects. The goal is making every assignment as meaningful for your clients as posible. That said, it usually comes with a lot of restrictions and layers of approvals which can be pretty draining creatively. Because of this, I always force myself to have another project in parallel that allows me to feel in full control of my creative expression.

Mainly my biggest challenge is time. Although I stretch hours as much as I can, it always seem short. I feel like there is something else I could be doing.

I currently work a full time job as Creative Director at an ad agency. I’m co-owner of Legends in Disguise, creating content for fashion and lifestyle brands. Founded a motorcycle lifestyle brand, Los Pepes Co., and constantly chime into other projects like Leica Spain documentary work or Capo Football Club branding and photography.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My visitors better like food and riding motorcycles!

Morning
Option 1 – Venice pier for a walk checking the fishermen and surfers.
Option 2 – Early motorcycle ride through the Malibu canyons to the Old Place for breakfast.
Option 3 – Gjusta breakfast with the family

Lunch
Option 1 – One of my favorite spots in DTLA, Redbird
Option 2 – Broad Street Oyster Company in Malibu
Option 3 – Playa Provisions in Playa del Rey

Afternoon
Option 1 – A walk around Abbot Kinney with a side of Salt and Straw
Option 2 – Check out the latest exhibition at the Leica Gallery
Option 3 – The Griffith Observatory right before sunset

Dinner
Option 1 – Kazunori
Option 2 – A flash back from living in NYC, Roberta’s in Culver City
Option 3 – Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen in little Tokyo

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I guess the first person that deserves some credit, who I’ve never actually met, is Aaron Nace. I’ve followed his Phlearn tutorials on YouTube since he started and I’ve gone to sleep watching his unlimited hours of content more times than I can count.

Second, everyone that surrounds me, family and friends, for constantly pushing me to try and impress them with “one more shot”.

And lastly the Leica family, for resuscitating my love for quality and documenting the real world.

Website: https://www.jaymoxias.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaymoxias

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-fernandez-de-bernabe-a3718031/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJXlK1Oyhfxmy1QhjGIVWPg

Image Credits
@jaymoxias