John Feeney - Overview

Feeney was born in Ngāruawāhia, near Hamilton, on New Zealand's North Island. He became fascinated by photography at a very early age and, at age 8, was given his first camera which, for the rest of his life, he would refer to as his 'magic lantern'. While attending Victoria University in Wellington, he entered the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve to do his compulsory service but, with conscription during WWII, was transferred into the Royal New Zealand Navy. He took part in the D-Day landings of 1944 and, a year later, was discharged with the rank of Lieutenant. He returned to New Zealand, where he took the job of research assistant with New Zealand's War History Branch, which was working on its 38-volume Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45. That experience led him to be hired, in 1947, by the National Film Unit of New Zealand.