Meet a French photographer and magician who feels almost like home in Bucharest.  

It’s a lovely September evening in Bucharest, but because of a nasty cold, I am blind to everything around me. Only when Fred Fogherty, a French photographer and Fujifilm ambassador, starts talking about the beauty and warmth of the evening, about the people wearing light clothing, as if it still were summer, I actually notice them all. His words are almost like the green light that tells you that you can safely cross the street.

After he moved to Bucharest four months ago, Fred Fogherty held a street photography workshop and has become increasingly active in the local photo landscape. Fred is also a magician, which stirred my interest, and hence our meeting over a cup of mint tea (me) and an espresso (Fred).

Fred Fogherty is his pseudonym, he explains. “The real name is my secret.” While Fred has a clear-cut history, the short form of Frederic, Fogherty resulted as a combination between fog, “the mystery, the magic”, and the ending “erty”. “I watched many American movies, looking at the names of the characters. And then I saw “Around the world in 80 days”, and in the movie there is one character called Moriarty. And Fogherty was born.”

Fred introduces himself. “First I’m an illusionist and a mentalist. This is my job and I travel all around the world with these magician skills. The biggest trick I did was the levitation of a building - one meter and a half for an automobile company. I can make a car or a motorbike disappear, I can cut an assistant in two pieces, but it’s my past,” he says.

Wait, that’s your past? We were just getting into the story and Fred was already ending it. He then explains: “I finished with these kind of huge shows, now I’m mostly doing mentalism shows. Magic at a very big scale is very complicated and requires a lot of stuff, while mentalism is only by myself.”

As summer was fading away, despite the warmth, I really needed to hear a magical story, so I fire questions away: Why did you start doing magic, first of all? And what is your story, Fred?

Fred takes the little cup of coffee in his big hands, smiles and goes right to the beginning of his story.

The winter

In the United States, the winter of 1995-1996 was the snowiest winter season on record to date. But for Frederic, a 23-year old French guy, it was simply a great winter. He had found his first job in the Valfrejus ski resort, a French resort located in the Alps, above 1,500m, and he was loving it. A big guy, dressed in a classic suit, he was the MC in a local cabaret, entertaining people and playing music.

One night, standing in front of the microphone, Frederic introduced the show of a magician called Tiac, a guy all dressed in black with a small yellow handkerchief, whose show was part of a comedy festival taking place at the ski resort. The young MC was immediately fascinated by Tiac. Talking into a microphone was fine for Fred, making people laugh was also OK, but now he was witnessing something totally new. Tiac made people dream with his magic show and Frederic saw that in the eyes of the audience, all shining. He decided in that very instant that he wanted to become a magician.

After the show, he asked Tiac how he could become a magician himself. The illusionist answered “if you want to become a magician, if you REALLY want to become a magician, you will become one”. Then he winked and that was all.

Three years later, they met at a festival, and two more years, Tiac died in a car crash after a show. Meanwhile, Frederic had become a magician and was now called Fred Fogerthy.

The world

Fred quit his job in the ski resort, moved to Paris and started his journey as magician, first in the streets, doing tricks. He learned from magic books, which he found in magic shops. “The magician in the shop first tests you, if you are a real magician or not.”

Then one day, the owner of a restaurant saw him and said: ‘you are good, come here’. So he started to play in restaurants, then in some Paris cabarets. After four years, he moved to the Réunion French Island in Africa, far away from firm land, performing in places such as Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, and even hosting his own TV show. Nine years later, he decided he needed some more adrenaline and moved to Asia.

He arrived in Dubai at 5 o’clock in the morning, with only three bags, and without knowing where he would sleep. But he soon became the magician in Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

“The good part of being a magician is always laughing, always traveling - the other side is that sometimes you have no money, you depend on the contract, the commitment,” Fred explains.

What about the magic? I ask him. It exists only for those who watch, but for the magician, there is no real magic. “You know the trick, but you can find the magic in the eyes of the public. That is the real mirror,” Fred says.

The heart

One time he did a magic show in a French school, and he donated the money he won to an association, who used them to buy a heart to save a child.

“My mind was simply blown away. With my magic show, I can save one child and buy a heart. Why not two or three hearts or even more? Now I know. My show will only be for free for disadvantaged people.”

Fred Fogerthy decided to start a big world tour. He would find sponsors, contact different organizations and present their causes. And rediscover magic. “When you go to the favelas or in the ghetto, there is the real sense of life: to give something to people who have nothing and never saw a magic show. The light in their eyes is amazing.” He traveled for 80 days in 14 countries, had 83 shows and met 10,000 children.

All these kids suffer from various diseases, such as AIDS, cancer, or are disabled. “I feel very close to them in the pain, I had and I have had some problems with my feet. I know how it feels when you have pain in your body. I know how it feels to have no money. I have lived through some similar experiences, and when I arrive in these places, I look at them, they look at me, and they know me immediately. It’s amazing. At the end, all the children want to hug me.”

It was during the tour when he first used the photo camera, as he needed photos for his sponsors. “Why I was good so quickly in street photography? The street is like a stage for me. When I’m on the stage, I don't know the audience. In the street it’s the same. People have their personal bubble. You must feel if you can get closer, stay far, smile, not smile, speak or not speak.”

He plans a new 80-day world tour, from January 2015 onwards, going to cities like Chisinau, Brussels, Istanbul, Mumbai, Pont-De-Cheruy, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Houston, Bogota, Buenos Aires. It’s a long list and Fred has mixed feelings about the tour, because he started falling in love with Bucharest, and right now, he has to go away.

For someone like me, who has lived in Bucharest for many years, and who hasn’t seen  almost any of the cities on his list, it seems absurd: why would he like this city and be sorry to leave it for two months? But Fred explains that here in Bucharest it’s the best he has felt in several years. It’s almost like home, he says. It’s a small city, it feels safe, and he likes the people. France, where he was born, and where his parents still live, is just a place he visits as a tourist.

But he will go on this new world tour. Because that’s his way of living magic. “You know, I’m a magician. I would like to dream but as a magician it’s almost impossible. I realized all my dreams. It’s very difficult to surprise me. My senses are always open. If they want to organize a birthday party, I know it before. It’s terrible. It’s difficult for me to be surprised and to dream. So this 80-days around the world is like a dream for me, like an adventure.”

He wants to open a photo studio in Bucharest, mixing magic and photography. It will probably be great. How many photographers can make a glass levitate without Photoshop?

By Diana Mesesan, features writer, diana@romania-insider.com

(photo credits: Xavier Guillaume)