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Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: Richard Berenholtz by Steve Anchell
Fourth generation New Yorker Richard Berenholtz, has built a solid reputation on carefully composed architectural and landscape color photographs of New York City using a combination of film, 35mm and 120 panoramic cameras. An architect with a degree from Columbia University, Richard has five books of photography on the architecture of New York: Inside New York, Panoramic New York, Manhattan Architecture, New York New York, and most recently, New York Architecture. Richard was born in Queens, and has lived the last 37 years on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, most of it in the building in which his mother was raised. As a result, he knows the city like… he was raised there. His knowledge of the city has held him in good stead. It allows him to choose the most likely places to capture the light and the color that make his work of New York exceptional.
Like all architectural and landscape photographers, Richard is a prisoner of the weather.
“You never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes you’ll get the perfect sky, and it will last for half an hour. Other times it’s gone in three minutes.
He began photographing in black and white, and, while still an architect, had three one-man shows in New York City. Upon switching from architecture to commercial photography, the need for black-and-white work diminished. “I used to see only in black and white, now most everyone wants color. It was rare that anyone asked me for a black-and-white image. I had to start seeing in color. Now, when somebody asks me to do black-and-white work, it’s hard to switch back—it’s such a different way of seeing.”
“I never actually took a course in photography. I started when I was pretty old, instead of going the traditional route—going to school, then apprenticing or assisting in a photographers’ studio for a number of years before striking out on your own. When I got into it I was about 34, and I felt like I was too old to go to school or be somebody’s assistant. So I just decided to plow ahead on my own. I was very driven. It worked out pretty well.”
But his reputation as a meticulous worker has taken him further than the City. His assignments take him out of state and around the globe. He has recently photographed the Mohegan Sun, a resort hotel/casino in Connecticut, and the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. All in all, Richard gets an interesting variety of work, from traveling across the country to photograph homes for construction industry clients, to photographing a Quaker Oats facility in Venice, Italy, and vineyards in Bordeaux, France. Fortunately, he likes to travel!
Richard mainly uses three cameras: the Fuji GX617, for panoramic images (transparency size 21⁄4 x 63⁄4 inches), the Fuji 680 (21⁄4 x 3 inches) for 120 format images that require shifts and tilts, and the Leica R5 SLR. He also owns an R4sp and an R8. Richard believes the lenses of the Leica R are slightly sharper than those made for other SLR systems.
Richard owns a range of Leica lenses from 15–350mm, including two shift lenses. His favorite lens on the Leica is the 15mm because it’s a rectilinear 15. He also tends to use the 250mm more than the 350. He combines the 180 and the 250 with a 2X tele-extender when he needs longer focal lengths, 360 and 500mm, respectively. For the moment, Richard works exclusively with film, though he’s contemplating switching to digital because more and more of his commercial clients are requesting it. What has slowed him down is his investment in Leica lenses. “I’ve been waiting for Leica to come out with a digital body I can use those lenses with. They have a digital back coming out in a year designed to work with the R8, but I might need to do something in between.”
“I’m very pure about my approach to photography. I don’t use filters, except at night, when I use a 10 magenta filter, to take the edge off the fluorescent green in the building lights, and sometimes with interiors. “I don’t fool around. I want things on the film. I keep going back until I get a good sky, as opposed to taking one and putting it in. Now people can almost create images on the computer from scratch. I’m proud of the fact I do everything in camera, but I’m not certain what that’s worth anymore. People care more about the end result than how it was achieved.”
“I always try to use the existing light whenever I can. If I have to add something, I do, but it’s not my favorite thing. I hate schlepping equipment around. I often arrive on assignment and people ask me where my equipment is. I say, ‘This is it.’ I have a camera bag slung over my shoulder and a tripod in my hand. They’re shocked. “I never use strobes, I only use hot lights. I have Lowel Softlights, 1000 or 2000 watts. Sometimes I just come in with Canal Street reflectors and a 25-watt bulb, to add a little light where I need it. I try to keep the spaces true to the way they look in reality. If it is supposed to be a dark space, I keep it dark, as opposed to lighting the heck out of it so you can see everything. I try to create the same feeling somebody gets when they enter the room.
Richard says that two of his inspirations are Ansel Adams and Jay Maisel. Long before he met Jay, he was amazed by Jay’s images and saturated colors. “Jay is not only an inspiration for a lot of photographers, but since I’ve known him, he has always been very supportive of my work. I practically blush when he says something complimentary. He’s the master.”
“Ellen Posner, an architectural critic for the Wall Street Journal, said that since viewing my work, she spends more time looking up and looking down, around corners and between buildings. That’s what I like to bring to people through my books and photographs—to help people experience New York in a different way. That’s what’s important to me. I feel like I’ve really accomplished something if I can do that.” Richard Berenholtz can be reached by email at rberenholtz@aol.com, or at (212) 222-1302. Steve Anchell is an internationally published fine art photographer. He has been a contributing editor to Outdoor Photographer, Camera & Darkroom and PhotoWork magazines. His published works include The Darkroom Cookbook, The Variable Contrast Printing Manual and, recently released, The Film Developing Cookbook. He currently conducts private workshops at his home in Southern Colorado and group workshops throughout the country. For information call (719) 256-4157.
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“Manhattan, I know best of all; the other boroughs I know to a certain extent. It’s a great asset that I know the city as well as I do. Exactly what day of the year the sun rises and sets on the east/west street access, and things like that, determine where I might go to photograph on a particular day.” 
Usually, he has some idea of what the weather will be like before planning a field trip for the following day. But often, depending on what he observes the light actually doing, he will determine at the last moment where to go—whether to Brooklyn or Queens because Manhattan will be silhouetted and there will be a beautiful sunset, or to New Jersey because the light will be reflecting off the buildings in a certain way.
“I go out all the time thinking it will be a certain way, and it’s never exactly how I think it will be. You just have to keep going and going. People often ask me, ‘How did you get the sky like that?’ I’ll answer, ‘Well, you don’t get to see the pictures from the other 20 times I was out there.’” Even with his extensive knowledge of the byways, highways, and secret vantage points, a lot of the time, finding the right light is hit and miss. But for Richard, the element of the unknown is part of what makes his work exciting. 
“The frustrating thing is the short window of time when the light is beautiful. I recently did a session for a client at the World Financial Center. It wasn’t just one image. It was for a brochure, and a dozen images were needed. It was very frustrating because there was about a five-minute period when the light was just spectacular. I had to pick one view, while the light was at its best, then run around and try to get more. But in terms of that perfect moment—it’s very short, either at sunset or sunrise. But when it’s right, it’s great.” 
Richard has been photographing the City, both inside and out, for nearly 20 years. Before switching to photography, around 1984, he was a practicing architect for 10 years. But Richard was not a stranger to photography. His father, an avid photo hobbyist, had been in charge of a photographic division during World War II. Even so, Richard didn’t actually own a camera until he got into architecture school, thinking he might need to photograph buildings. 
The only formal photography course Richard has taken was a one-term black-and-white printing course at the International Center for Photography in New York. 
Despite the high profile of his books, most of his work is on assignment. His assignments include a lot of real estate work in New York. When a building goes up, he’s very often hired to photograph from the building, so the client can see the views from the different levels. These assignments often go hand in hand with photographing the building and the neighborhood, which the client can use in their sales office or for brochures. 
Surprisingly, Richard almost never works for architects. He feels that this is because he doesn’t use a large format camera. “Architects still tend to hire people who use 4x5. Once in a while I get a call from an architect, but it’s very rare. It’s also in the way I market myself. I only advertise in the Workbook—that’s the one major ad campaign I do every year. I don’t think architects use that book for finding people. It’s really for the advertising and design industry.” 
“I love Ansel Adams’ work, and I know he used a large format camera. I decided I was going to get the sharpest image possible and still use 35mm. Even though there has been great improvement in lens design, I still think the Leica lenses are a little sharper than the competition.” 
Richard is often asked about his technique. How does he obtain the crisp, carefully composed, images with the rich, glowing colors they exhibit? “I only photograph with a tripod, unless I’m in a helicopter. I always use a hot-shoe mounted level on the Leica. I’m very careful how I frame things and generally shoot with slow film, like Fuji Velvia rated at 40. It can get into very long exposures, which is another reason I use a tripod. 
For Richard, night exposures with medium format usually end up being about a minute and a half at f/11. When he works with the 35mm at night, he usually sets the camera on automatic and brackets. 
“Two examples from my book New York New York are McSorley’s Old Ale House and the Airline Diner. On McSorley’s I may have used a minimum of light to fill some of the darkest areas, but not much. On the Airline Diner all I used was a magenta filter for the fluorescent lighting.” 
Like the best photographers in both the landscape and architectural tradition, Richard practices the two disciplines: patience and observation. He gets pleasure from traveling around the city and making notes about the time of day he thinks something should be photographed. He also gets a lot of satisfaction out of finding unique subjects that can cause people to have their eyes opened. “People look at my work and tell me they see the city in a whole different light. They look at things they never looked at before.