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Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus

Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus who used to be his partner, died in a tsunami disaster back in 2004. Today we are going to talk about how Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus met for the first time.

Fernando Bengoechea

Born in Argentina Fernando Bengoechea was an internationally acclaimed photographer. His work appeared in major magazines including OH. He traveled the world on assignment. Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus met for the first time on a photo-shoot for Oh at home magazine that was in 2003. He died in the tsunami incident which took place at Sri Lanka in 2004.

Interviewer Questions

Book Dedication

Interviewer: You dedicate the book to Fernando?

Nate: I do. The first book and this book both to him. I think about all the time would where would Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus be if he had survived, would we still be together? Would he have agreed with the decisions that I’ve made since then in life? What would he think about Who I am today because it’s certainly different than who I was in 2004.

Last Feeling

Interviewer: What I also aside from how beautifully and poignantly and movingly the story is told. I mean I’ve heard you tell it I looked in your eyes shortly after it happened but the way you write about it here, I could feel him his last feeling. You actually were in that water but you say that he helped you to see life differently in a more beautiful way. This is the quote I’ve been looking for he showed me a bigger life than I ever dreamed of.

Nate: He really did. I have to say this chapter in this book this was the hardest thing for me to work on. I didn’t set out to write the story of Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus or the tsunami in a design book.

Spiritual Book or Design Book

Interviewer: Yeah, but what happened was that this one more than the design is. It became, it’s a design spiritual book.

Nate: It really is. What happened was when I started getting all the stories back from everybody else that’s included in the book. They were so forthcoming and so honest about who they’ve loved and all state laws and their stories I knew that I really had to dig in. So I wasn’t always prepared emotionally to dig into this story. The nine times I had to do to get it right and to get it to be what I needed it to say but it was a process. It was a very cathartic process to even write the write it down.

How Nate Berkus and Fernando Bengoechea Met

Interviewer: I would like for you to read the excerpt page 27 on how you and Fernando met?

Nate: Okay.

Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus met in 2003 at a photo shoot for Oh at-home magazine. He had been hired to photograph the makeover process of a living room. I was brought in to redo 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.

Interviewer: How did he see you?

Nate: He saw me for who I wanted for how I wanted to be seen and I felt that from the very first moments with him.

Interviewer: What does that mean it?

Nate: I meant that he captured not only what I looked like but he felt like. He captured my humour and me. I don’t know how he did that, there was an energy that sort of came over the room and the whole shoot in the whole location between the two of us. That was really cool. We both felt it although we couldn’t articulate it and then I had the sort of the presence of mind to believe that that energy was just between Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus, until we started dating. I realized that that was his gift that anyone that he put his lens in front of also felt that way and wanted to be seen that way.

Do your eyes light up?

Interviewer: We wanted to be with him and around that energy around it because this is the real truth and the real a powerful spiritual lesson for all of us. Toni Morrison shared when she was on the show years ago. When you know she talked about your kids entering the room, do your eyes light up? Do your eyes light up when I entered the room? She said. That’s what everybody wants. Everybody do. Do I know my eyes light up and also what every human being wants is what you just said. We just want you to see us right not just for not just for who we are but for the best that we can be.

Nate: Yes that’s it really. Did I need that Wow? It was an enormous the first time in it ever happened. I didn’t really know what to do with that level of energy it was really hard to receive at that moment but I did. Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus took it in.

Fernando Bengoechea and Nate Berkus Felt Love

Interviewer: That feels like love doesn’t it? When somebody sees you that way?

Nate: It does it is love feels like that is what love feels like, that’s it.