1913 Johannes Hendrik Fernhout (John Ferno) is born on August 9
in Bergen (North Holland) to painter Charley Toorop and philosopher
Hendrik Fernhout.
1917 Breakdown of his parents' marriage.
1922 Charley Toorop and her three children move into De Vlerken,
a house designed in collaboration with architect Piet Kramer on Buerweg
in Bergen.
1926 The family moves temporarily to 48 Leidsegracht in Amsterdam.
1928 John Fernhout is apprenticed to film-maker Joris Ivens and
moves into his house. That summer he is involved in Mannus Franken's
film Branding.
1929 Assists Joris Ivens in Regen (Rain), in which he also has a role as an extra.
1930 Works with Ivens on Zuiderzee (1930-1933), a film
documenting the final closing of the Zuiderzee dam (May 28 1932).
Charley Toorop sends him to Paris to study cinematography, but he hates
the atmosphere there and goes to Poland to shoot material for the film
Creosote. Takes his first photographs with a 35mm Leica. Follows Ivens'
advice to study photography at the Agfa school in Berlin. Photographer
György Kepes introduces him to Eva Besnyö and Robert Capa.
1932 Fernhout and Besnyö leave for the Netherlands. Fernhout joins Ivens' studio and works for Philips Radio.
1932 Besnyö and Fernhout join the Vereeniging van Arbeiders-Fotografen, of which Cas Oorthuys is also a member.
1932 Fernhout and Besnyö marry on July 25. They go to Hungary to
make a photo-reportage about Kiserdö, a slum district on the outskirts
of Budapest. It is published in Het Leven.
1934 Fernhout collaborates in Ivens' film Nieuwe Gronden (New Earth), photographs the Jordaan riots and teaches film techniques in Amsterdam.
1934-1935 Belgian director Henri Storck invites him to make three films, Easter Island, Making South and Threemaster 'Mercator',
Fernhout's first ventures in directing, in addition to his camerawork.
He makes more films for Storck during the next two years.
1937 Ivens invites Fernhout to film Spanish Earth, a documentary
about the Spanish civil war based on a script by Ernest Hemingway.
During the shooting he renews his acquaintance with Capa and meets
Ernest Hemingway. Fernhout and Besnyö separate.
1938 Spends six months in China shooting Ivens' The Four Hundred Million, a film about the Japanese invasion of China.
1939 With Ivens in Paris to edit the China film. Pays a brief
visit to the Netherlands before settling in the United States as John
Ferno.
1940 The German occupation prevents his return to the
Netherlands. Works for the Educational Film Institute of New York
University and for the National Film Board of Canada until 1942. In New
York Robert Capa introduces him to the dancer Blanche (Polly) Korchien,
whom he later marries.
1942-1944 Works for the Netherlands Information Bureau in New York.
1944 In October Fernhout comes to Europe as a war correspondent
(head of film unit) with the allied forces. On November 20 he films the
beginning of the liberation of the Netherlands with cameramen Frits
Wassenberg and Piet Out.
1945 He and Eva Besnyö are divorced.
1947 With Richard Leacock as cameraman, directs seven geographical films entitled People of the Earth, for which he tours Europe and Morocco. He is now based in Paris.
1948-1954 Lives at Bougival in the Château St. Michel. Until
1954 makes information films in connection with the Marshall Plan. He
then takes two years off, eighteen months of which are spent in Rome on
the Via Adda.
1957 Moves to London.
1960 Returns to the Netherlands.
1962 In Paris he and his son Douwes make sixty films about the
French language. Contact with Magnum photographers. Blanche Korchien
dies on February 6 in Lausanne.
1967 His film Sky over Holland wins the Golden Palm at Cannes; the stills are by Cas Oorthuys.
1968 Continues to make films with Douwes until 1980, chiefly in
Israel. Commutes between the Netherlands and Israel and his house in
Sperlanga (Italy). First signs of cardiac problems.
1977 Black-and-white film My Generation about photographer Cas Oorthuys, based on Oorthuys' archive.
1978 Marries Julia Meirovna Wiener in Amsterdam on July 17.
1980 Frequent visits to the Netherlands.
1985 Shortly after the rushes of The Preserved Landscape Fernhout suffers a serious heart attack.
1986 Receives the Edo Bergsma Prize for The Preserved Landscape.
1987 John Fernhout dies on March 1 in Jerusalem.
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