It was a family merging of sorts in The American University in Cairo’s Sony Gallery at John Feeney’s “River Man photography exhibit opening. New Zealand’s Feeney, who passed away this time last year at age 84, lived in Egypt for 40 years. On this night, his relatives from New Zealand and Feeney’s closest Cairene friends were finally able to meet each other.
Said Sourour, Feeney’s physician in Cairo, told the photographer’s sister Moira Feeney – who came from New Zealand for the opening – “He was like a father and a friend.
It wasn’t only Feeney’s family that was here from the South Pacific. Prime Minister Helen Clark, who was in town to open New Zealand’s embassy in Cairo, was able to do the honors of inaugurating the exhibit.
“Other Kiwis are just beginning to learn about the wonderful man, Clark said in her speech, adding that they would like to see the same exhibit back home.
She also said Feeney was “a true life adventure story.
John Feeney was quite an amazing fellow – a well-traveled photographer, Academy Award nominated director, cookbook author and lieutenant in the Royal New Zealand Naval Reserve Feeney.
During what was to be a one-year stay in 1963 to make the documentary “Fountains of the Sun at the Ministry of Culture’s request, he fell in love with Egypt and didn’t leave for 40 years.
In 2005 Feeney wrote that “most of life’s dreams are not carefully plotted; they just happen and we must be ready.
Feeney’s photos are a perfect collaboration of all Egypt’s idiosyncrasies, and many pictures capture significant moments now lost from reality forever.
A portrait of the late Dorothy Eady, or Omm Sety, is on display in the Sony Gallery. A kindred spirit to Feeney, Eady was drawn to Egypt in a mystical way where she lived out her literal dreams. She sits in a chair the year before her passing, pensively looking past the lens. Crutches lean against a wall behind her.
Feeney also memorialized Gamel Abdel Nasser’s funeral cortege in a bird’s-eye perspective as the procession crossed Qasr El-Nil Bridge in 1970. There is a photo of this on display as well as a close up of the late Ahmed El Khoumy showing an expressive man in 1999 who was the last of Cairo’s old color shadow puppeteers.
Below the set of “Shadows of Fancy puppet photos, the children of John Feeney’s niece, all in from New Zealand, sat patiently anticipating their month-long excursion through Egypt. They hadn’t even been to the pyramids yet – Great Uncle Feeney’s exhibit was the first stop.
Close by, upon hearing that her brother had been so close with his physician Dr Sourour, Moira Feeney replied to him in jest, “Did [John] look after your health as well? They laughed together, the presumption being that John and Said of course had looked after each other. Feeney once lived right below the doctor.
“Feeney was family, Dr Sourour’s sister Sylvia told Daily News Egypt.
Prime Minister Clark informally described Feeney as “New Zealand’s Cultural Ambassador to Egypt for many, many years. It was quite clear in the Sony Gallery that he is still bridging the gap between these two cultures even after his death.
John Feeney photography will be on display at AUC’s Sony Gallery until Dec. 12. His books “Egyptian Soups: Hot and Cold and “Photographing Egypt: Forty Years Behind the Lens are available at the AUC Bookstore.
