John Fernhout

John Fernhout (1981)

Johannes Hendrik Fernhout , short John Fernhout or John Ferno (born August 9, 1913 in Bergen , North Holland , † March 1, 1987 in Jerusalem ) was a Dutch photographer, cameraman and director.

Live and act

Childhood and apprenticeship as a cameraman with Joris Ivens

House De Vlerken in Bergen, where John Fernhout lived as a child

John Fernhout was born in Bergen in 1913 as the second son of the painter Charley Toorop and the philosopher Hendrik Fernhout. His brother was the future painter Edgar Fernhout (1912–1974), and he also had a younger sister. Four years after John Fernhout's birth, his parents separated and Charley Toorop moved with the children to Bergen, where they lived in the De Vlerken house. In 1926 the family lived temporarily in Amsterdam .

In 1928 Fernhout became an assistant to the documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens and moved in with him. In the summer they worked on Mannus Franken's short film Surf . The following year Fernhout Ivens assisted in the creation of the short documentary Regen , in which he also appeared as an actor. In 1930 he worked as a cameraman on Ivens' documentation Zuiderzee about the establishment of the Zuiderzee works .

At his mother's request, Fernhout began studying cinematography in Paris, which he broke off again. Instead, he went to Poland to take photos for Iven's film Creosoot (1932), a commissioned work about the extraction and use of creosote . Fernhout used a Leica with 35 mm film for the first time . On Iven's advice, he attended the Agfa School in Berlin. He met the photographers Éva Besnyő and Robert Capa through the painter György Kepes (1906–2001) .

In 1932 Fernhout went to the Netherlands with Besnyő, where they joined the Vereeniging van Arbeiders photographers. Fernhout worked as a cameraman for Ivens' studio. He was involved in the short film Philips radio , which Ivens shot for Philips and which showed the manufacture of the company's products. Philips radio was one of the first Dutch sound films. The sound was recorded by Albert Helman in a Paris studio .

Fernhout married Éva Besnyő on July 25, 1932. Together they traveled to Hungary and took pictures for a photo report about the slum Kiserdö on the outskirts of Budapest , which appeared in the magazine Het Leven . Fernhout then stood behind the camera again for Iven's short documentary Nieuwe gronden , a sequel to Zuiderzee .

Stay in Belgium and first directorial work

Fernhout taught film technology in Amsterdam in 1934. In the same year he met the Belgian filmmaker Henri Storck (1907–1999). On his behalf, he accompanied an archaeological expedition that traveled to Easter Island on the sailing ship De Mercator . Fernhout made nature shots, but also filmed scenes in the leper colony and the transport of a stone sculpture on the way back to Belgium. The three documentaries L'île de Pâques , Cap au Sud and Le Trois-mâts Mercator were made from the material . Before he worked almost exclusively as a cameraman, Fernhout also directed the film. In the following two years more films were made in collaboration with Storck.

In 1937 Fernhout and Besnyő separated. However, they only got divorced after the Second World War (1945) to protect Besnyő, who was of Jewish origin, from persecution.

Fernhout worked as a cameraman for Iven's documentary Spanish Earth in 1937 , which they shot from a script by Ernest Hemingway during the Spanish Civil War . The film received a National Board of Review Award . In 1938 Fernhout went to China for six months with Ivens and Capa, where the shooting of Ivens documentary The 400 Million took place. In it he discussed the Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion .

Stay in the United States during World War II

Fernhout in New York (c.1943)

While Ivens went to Paris in 1939 to complete The 400 Million , Fernhout left for the United States after a brief visit to the Netherlands. There he settled under the name John Ferno. In New York he met his future second wife, the dancer Blanche (Polly) Korchien (dec. 1962) know. In 1943, their son Douwes was born.

Fernhout worked for the Educational Film Institute at New York University and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) until 1942 . When a Oscar nominated documentation High Over the Borders (1942), which was produced by the NFB, he was responsible for the film section.

From 1942 to 1944 Fernhout worked for the Netherlands Information Bureau in New York. There he became head of the newly founded film department. He made films about Dutch traditions and personalities, such as the baptism of Margriet von Oranien-Nassau in Ottawa , which were aimed primarily at the American audience.

Post-war Europe

In October 1944, Fernhout returned to Europe as the chief war correspondent with the Allied Forces. On behalf of the Netherlands Information Bureau and the British Ministry of Information , he made several short films until 1945, which deal with the individual steps of the liberation from the German occupation. This includes the film The Last Shot , which takes up events shortly before and after the liberation, such as war damage and " Hongerwinter ", the Allied invasion of Amsterdam and the arrest of NSB officials . Another film, Broken Dykes , shows the bombing of the dikes on Walcheren .

Fernhout first lived in Paris after the war. With cameraman Richard Leacock he made seven films in Europe and Morocco in 1947 for the People of the Earth series . He later moved to Bougival and made some educational films in connection with the Marshall Plan until 1954 . He then stayed in Rome for 18 months , then in London until 1957.

Old age in the Netherlands, Italy and Israel

In 1958 Fernhout's short documentary ABC appeared on the Netherlands Antilles . This shows nature and everyday photos from the islands of Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao . While Fernhout directed, Walter Lassaly worked as a cameraman. The film was awarded a Palme d'Or nomination .

In 1960 Fernhout returned to the Netherlands. Two years later he made numerous films about the French language in Paris with his son Douwes. In 1967 he directed his most successful documentary, the short film Sky Over Holland , which earned him an Oscar nomination. His son was involved as a producer and cameraman. The still photos were provided by Cas Oorthuys , who Fernhout later shot the documentary My Generation about .

From 1968 to 1980 Fernhout commuted between the Netherlands, his home in Sperlonga and Israel, where he made other films with his son. On July 17, 1978, he married his third wife Julia Meirovna Wiener in Amsterdam.

Tomb of John Fernhout in Alliance Church International Cemetery, Jerusalem

In 1985 Fernhout made his last film, the documentary The Preserved Landscape about the Hoge Veluwe Nature Park . Shortly afterwards he had a heart attack. In 1987 he died in Jerusalem.

Awards

• 1967 : Grand Prix at the Cannes International Film Festival in the “ Best Short Film ” category for Sky Over Holland
• 1968 : Oscar nomination in the category “ Best Short Film ” for Sky Over Holland

Filmography (selection)

Cameraman / photographer

• 1929: Surf ( Branding ) (short film)
• 1930: Zuiderzee (short film)
• 1931: Philips Radio (short film)
• 1933: Nieuwe gronden (short documentary film)
• 1934: Productie van gastroduodenal ulcers bij de hond (documentary film)
• 1934: Het meisje met den blauwen hoed (as camera assistant)
• 1937: Spanish Earth ( Spaanse aarde ) (documentary)
• 1939: The 400 Million (documentary)

Director

• 1930: Vervoermiddelen (short film)
• 1933: Hallo Everybody (short documentary) (as assistant director)
• 1933: Roode sport (short film)
• 1935: L'île de Pâques (documentary film)
• 1935: Le Trois-mâts Mercator (documentary film)
• 1935: Cap au Sud (documentary film)
• 1945: Broken Dykes (short documentary)
• 1946: The Last Shot ( Het laatste schot ) (short film)
• 1947: Forgotten Island (short documentary)
• 1948: The Po River Valley: Italy (documentary)
• 1949: Food for Paris Markets .. Northern Rural France (documentary)
• 1950: Corinth Canal (short documentary film)
• 1950: Land behind the Dikes (documentary)
• 1953: Mountain Farmer (documentary)
• 1954: Miner's Window (documentary)
• 1958: ABC (short documentary film)
• 1958: Blue Peter (short documentary)
• 1964: Well-fortified Switzerland (Oscar title Fortress of Peace ; short film)
• 1967: Sky Over Holland (short documentary)
• 1971: The Three of Life
• 1980: Museum on the Hill
• 1983: Three Generations ( Drie Generaties )
• 1984: My Generation is Black and White ( Mijn generatie is zwart-wit )
• 1985: The Preserved Landscape ( Het bewaarde landschap ) (documentary)

Further

• 1941: A Child Went Forth (short documentary) (as producer)
• 1942: High Over the Borders (as film editor)
• 1951: The Journey (as producer)
• 1952: 1 2 3. Europa im Bild ( One-Two-Three. A Monthly Review From Europe ) (documentary series) (as Production Manager and Supervisor )

Web links

• Literature by and about John Fernhout in the WorldCat bibliographic database
• John Fernhout in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Biography on the website of the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam (English)
• Biography on the website of the Huygens Instituut (Dutch)
• Filmography at the British Film Institute

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} biography of John Fernhout ( memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. nederlandsfotomuseum.nl, accessed on January 18, 2014.  
2. ↑ Philips radio ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dutchfilmoffice.com, accessed January 18, 2014.  
3. ↑ Paaseiland ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dutchfilmoffice.com, accessed January 18, 2014.  
4. ↑ ^{a b c} John Fernhout (1913-1987), Fotograaf en cameraman, Verenigde Staten en de bevrijding van Europa (1938-1945) nederlandsfotomuseum.nl, accessed on January 18, 2014.
5. ↑ Broken Dykes ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dutchfilmoffice.com, accessed January 18, 2014.  
6. ↑ ABC ( Memento of the original dated February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dutchfilmoffice.com, accessed January 18, 2014.