|
|
|
Back to dossier
John (Ferno) Fernhout | Ernest Hemingway and Joris Ivens during a shooting for the film The Spanish Earth, Madrid (1937)
The Spanish Earth
In late 1936, Joris Ivens asks John Fernhout to go with him to Spain for a film about the Spanish Civil War commissioned by Contemporary Historians Incorporated, an American group of prominent artists and writers with Communist tendencies. In 1937, Fernhout works for months on end as cameraman for the film De Spaanse Aarde (The Spanish Earth).
Ernest Hemingway
After an initial month in Spain, Ivens and Fernhout take a short trip to Paris, where they meet Ernest Hemingway, who is on his way to Spain as a war correspondent. They decide to ask Hemingway to write the commentary for the film. Hemingway is of great use to them: he speaks Spanish and has been in conflict situations before. In Spain, Hemingway starts calling Fernhout ‘Ferno’. After that, John Fernhout uses the name John Ferno more often, for the first time in the end credits of The Spanish Earth.
Leica
Besides wielding a film camera, John also uses a Leica to take photographs. The negative film material for both cameras is interchangeable, since both use the 35mm format, so he doesn’t have to bring along separate negatives.
John (Ferno) Fernhout | Dead donkey during the Spanish civil war, Brihuega, Spain (1937)
The First Conflict Situation
In Spain, they take photographs and shoot film for the first time in a war situation, making John Fernhout one of the first Dutch war correspondents. Spain is his baptism of fire. Very few of the many photographs that Fernhout takes in Spain are ever published. The publicity for The Spanish Earth mainly uses stills from the film.
Gruesome Images
Fernhout's photographs not only show those directly involved in the filmmaking
John (Ferno) Fernhout
but also the results of the bloody civil war. The pictures he takes on the 26th of March of Italian casualties of the battle near Guadelajara are his most intense photographs. Some of these images of horribly maimed casualties are still too shocking to be made public.
foto ’37
In the Netherlands, Eva Besnyö meanwhile arranges for Fernhout’s photographs to be shown at the foto ’37 exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. foto ’37 is the first exhibition in the Netherlands showing the new forms of reportage photography that will thrive only after the German occupation ends in 1945.
John (Ferno) Fernhout
Besides Fernhout’s pictures, there are also photographs from Spain by Carel Blazer, Robert Capa and Gerda Taro. At the time of the exhibition, Gerda Taro is run over by a Russian tank in Spain.
Iconic Image from Madrid
Fernhout's best-known image from Spain is one from a series of five taken from the balcony of a house in the Paseo de Rosales in Madrid. From this vantage point, the small film crew have a good view of the battlefield.
The pictures show how Ivens, Fernhout and Hemingway set up their camera, camouflaging it with some old clothes
John (Ferno) Fernhout
they have found in the house. Fernhout himself is also portrayed while working on the film camera. These pictures were most likely taken by either Ivens or Hemingway.
Under the heading ‘First Combat Experience’, Hemingway describes the scene in his notes of 9 April 1937, probably without having seen Fernhout's pictures.
First Combat Experience
‘Just as we were congratulating ourselves on having such a splendid observation post out of the reach of danger a bullet smacked against a corner of a brick wall beside Ivens's head. Thinking it was a stray, we moved over a little, and, as I watched the action with glasses shading them carefully, another came by my head. We changed our position to a spot where the observing was not so good and were shot at twice more.
Joris thought Ferno had left his camera at our first post, and, as I went back for it a bullet whacked into the wall above. I crawled back on my hands and knees, and another bullet came by as I crossed the exposed corner.
We decided to set up the big telephoto camera. Ferno had gone back to find a healthier position, and he chose the third floor of a ruined house. There, in the shade of a balcony, with the camera camouflaged with old clothes found in the house, we worked all afternoon and watched the battle.’
Robert Capa
In the Hotel Florida in Madrid, Fernhout meets his Hungarian friend from Berlin, Endre Friedmann, who meanwhile has changed his name to Robert Capa. Capa is in Spain to take photographs for the famous Life magazine and for other clients. After Spain, he decides to accompany Fernhout and Ivens as a photographer on their trip to China.
Back to dossier |
|
|
See also
|
