José María “Pepe” Fernández was born in Buenos Aires on December 16 th, 1928.
At an early age he started studying piano and developed an eagerness for reading.
In 1945 he met the poet Juan Rodolfo Wilcock who got him in touch with the porteña intelectual elite, with charácters such as Silvina Ocampo, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Jorge Luis Borges. In the meantime he developed a profound
friendship with Alberto Greco and María Elena Walsh whom, in 1968 , dedicated him the song“Zamba para Pepe”. His family house in Ramos Mejía, turned into a place of gathering where musicians, artits and intelectuals of different generations got together.
Invited by Silvina Ocampo in1954 he travelled to Paris, where his exiled Friends were waiting for him. Two years later he returned to Buenos Aires where he started working for Editorial Abril first as a photonovel screenwriter and then as an editor for Claudia magazine. After his parents deaths in 1963 he returned to France where he established definitely .In 1969 he moved to the attic in an old building of la rue du Four, appartment where he lived for thirty years and became a meeting point for all the artistic and literary argentinian community.
In the 70 ́s Pepe published his first literary chronicles at the Argentine magazine Semana gráfica and started working as a correspondent for Editorial Abril.
For ilustrating his articles, he started making his first profesional photographs. By the end of the decade his images were not only published in Argentinian magazines but also in L’Exprés, Le Nouvel Observateur, Vogue, and other european publications.
He transformed into an inescapable portraitist for argentinian and latinoamericans actors, musicians, artists and writers, who visited Paris. The portraits were never made in studios, his charsima and sensibility allowed him a sense of intimacy and complicity with the portrayed that is revealed in the images. In 1978 he took the photograph that became his most famous one, Borges, standing at the center of a star in L’Hôtel ́s lobby. He also portrayed argentine sportmen that became famous in France like Carlos Monzón or Guillermo Vilas with whom he forged friendships. Beside his portraits and journalism coverage he developed a number of naked male series and scenes captured in Paris streets and Cafés.
He exhibited his works in París, New York, Buenos Aires, México and Budapest. In 1991 he presented a solo-show exhibition in Buenos Aires, at the Fotogalería del Teatro General San Martín, organised by Sara Facio. In 2004 his last solo-show took place at the Centro de Arte Moderno de Madrid. He died in july 2006 in his appartment of rue du Four.