A Life Behind the Lens

Filmmaker, writer and photographer John Patrick Feeney has died in Wellington aged 84. Born in Ngaruawahia and educated at Victoria University, Feeney served as a lieutenant in the Royal NZ Naval Reserve during World War II and participated in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. He worked for the NZ Film Unit in the 1950s and, midway through the decade, moved to Canada to film the inhabitants of the Canadian Arctic. His documentary about Inuit carving – The Living Stone – was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1963 Feeney arrived in Egypt to spend a year making another documentary film. He ended up staying for 40 years, completing several documentaries and writing numerous books on Middle Eastern cooking.  Photographing Egypt: Forty Years Behind the Lens is the most extensive collection of his photographic work, which also featured in Saudi Aramco World and Reader’s Digest magazines.

John Patrick Feeney: 10 August 1922 – 6 December 2006