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Bernstein (r) names Stern (l) as the executive he
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Name: Andrew Bernstein
Position: Andrew D. Bernstein Associates Photography Inc. President
Age: 57
Where I’m from: Brooklyn
Where I call home: San Marino, Calif.
Focusing on right now: First down-time since the NBA season started
Best advice: My dad told me way back when, "Be nice to everybody." In business and personal, it’s always served me to air on the side of kindness rather than anything negative. It’s been the guiding mantra throughout my life.
A must for a new hire: A sense of team spirit, that we all work together. Nobody is above or below their pay-grade in terms of what we ask people to do. We all chip in when necessary to get the job done without complaint.
Exec I admire most: Former NBA Commissioner DAVID STERN. Early in my career, David’s personal style mixed with his professional leadership really helped me feel like I was part of something bigger and something important. He said a long time ago that I helped to define the digital image of the NBA, which is a tremendous compliment. As the NBA grew and became more corporate and just a bigger global company, my relationship with David really never changed. He’s still a great friend and a tremendous mentor, and I’m thankful for all of the years I had to work with him closely.
Best book I’ve read this year: "The Upside of Stress" by KELLY MCGONIGAL. It’s a really eye-opening, new concept about stress. We all view stress as a negative, but this author’s take is that we can use stress as a good thing, to push us and motivate us. She cites a lot of physiological and neurological effects of stress that are actually good for the body, which is really mind-blowing.
First thing in the morning: I have a 7-year-old at home, MIMI, and so she’s usually the one who wakes us up. I usually read an affirmation on my phone, which kind of sets the tone for the day. I’m kind of a spiritual guy, so I look forward to that every day. When I’m home, I usually take Mimi to school, and I relish that.
Talking tech: I’m really impressed with the camera on the iPhone 6. I liked the camera on the iPhone 5, but the iPhone 6 camera is really amazing. The resolution and the fact that you can do panoramic, and the video quality and all that stuff. When I go on vacation or we do family stuff, I never, ever, ever take a professional camera, and I never have.
Must have music: I’m a huge BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN fan. If I were to be stranded on a desert island, my playlist would be 100% Bruce. I’ve seen Bruce since 1978; I’ve been to 62 concerts all over the world. I use Bruce in so many different ways and use different songs at different times. The one song that fuels and pushes me is the song “NO SURRENDER" -- I need that song sometimes to push me over the edge of something troubling me.
Food for thought: My wife, MARIEL MULET, is an amazing cook. She’s Argentinean, and she is just incredible in the kitchen. We have very busy lives and only cook every once in a while. Usually when I’m home, we’ll go out. My favorite restaurant is 1810 in Pasadena. It’s an Argentinean restaurant, and if you’ve ever had Argentinean beef, there’s nothing like it.
How I unwind: We keep a small ski boat up at Big Bear Lake in L.A., so we try to sneak up there every once in a while. I love being on the lake. That’s probably the most pastoral and serene place that I can be -- on the lake, pre-dawn. I drive into the middle of the lake and just sit there.
Day in the life: Sports photography has changed dramatically on the business side. When I started, all of us owned the copyright to our images, meaning that we were able to sell them and do whatever we wanted with them. That did a 180-degree change close to 20 years ago now, where all the leagues now own the copyright to their images, and that’s a profound change. When I first started in the early ‘80s, I had a small mom-and-pop stock picture agency that I operated out of my garage where we sold our sports images -- that can’t happen anymore because of the copyright restrictions, so that’s been a huge change.
Below is a slideshow featuring some of Bernstein's favorite shots:
