Malcolm Ferguson

Malcolm Ferguson’s career as a cinematographer spans decades and continents. As co-founder of early TV commercials company Advertising Photography and a longtime cinematographer for Reynolds Film and Television, Ferguson shot everything from commercials and charity films to documentaries. His work took him around the globe, including extensive shoots across the Soviet Union for his 1987 documentary series Icebreaker - Family Life in the Soviet Union. 

Born on 19 February 1935, Ferguson was one of five siblings raised on a farm in East Tāmaki, on Auckland’s fringe. His first exposure to photography came early on from his father, who was an avid photographer and home moviemaker. At Howick District High School, Ferguson joined the school’s photographic club, developing his first photographs in the bathroom at home on the farm: "To me it was just like magic," he says. "I was just hooked; there was a real tactile thing about it." 

At 19, Ferguson joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force for compulsory military training. Eager to steer toward photography wherever possible, he applied to the photographic unit and became one of only six trainees selected across all the armed forces that year. Over three months of intensive training, he learned to operate a wide range of camera formats and shoot aerial photography.

On parental advice, Ferguson began an apprenticeship in precision engineering. "My father said if I didn’t want to go into farming, I had to get a real job". He continued to shoot stills on the side. His first paid photography job was documenting the extension of Auckland's northwestern motorway. A few years later, he joined a friend of his father’s who ran a photographic studio and retail store. "Babies, weddings, and sports teams became my main gigs," he says. "They paid good money."

In 1960, after he decided to turn down a job offer in Wellington with the National Film Unit, Ferguson was approached by Bob Wardlaw of Wardlaw Advertising. The company was keen to launch a production division to make TV commercials, ahead of the introduction of television commercials in April 1961. Ferguson and Wardlaw Advertising established a company, Advertising Photography. For one of his first assignments, Ferguson headed to Australia to shoot and edit commercials for Creamcraft ice cream and Venlight venetian blinds. "I hadn't had any training or anything — just a few home movies and books on how to make movies. I was basically learning on the job."

Ferguson’s engineering skills proved invaluable as the company expanded; he designed custom rigs for developing and printing film in-house at the Auckland studio. He went on to manage a team of nine, overseeing commercials, documentaries, and news assignments for the NZ Broadcasting Corporation.

After 11 years with Advertising Photography, Ferguson wanted to move the company to a larger space in Parnell, but Wardlaw vetoed it. Ferguson's reputation for commercial work had drawn the attention of several producers, including Harry Reynolds, who ran his own production company. Reynolds brought Ferguson on board as cinematographer. "It appealed to me because they were doing documentaries big time at that stage," says Ferguson. "Documentaries were the thing I really liked doing."

Throughout the 1970s, Ferguson frequently collaborated with Reynolds Television director Wayne Tourrell. Together they worked on documentaries including Into Antiquity: A Memory of the Māori Moko (1972), about what was then believed to be the last generation of Māori women with tā moko; Quite a Ladd (1973), profiling famed aviator Fred Ladd; and Rowena Jackson, Prima Ballerina (1976).

The pair also made two anti-drink driving dramas for the Ministry of Transport. 479 (1974) and On the Day (1975) both got prime time slots, and sold to Canada and the United States. Reviewing 479 for The NZ Herald, Robin Turkel praised it as "from a technical standpoint certainly one of the best New Zealand efforts for a long time". On the Day was nominated for a Feltex Award (the local television awards). A Listener reviewer was so taken in by the drama, he failed to notice it was part of a drink-driving campaign.

In 1976, Ferguson joined Tourrell on a trip to study screen production in North America. The pair travelled to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Canada, visiting sets for shows including M*A*S*H and Little House on the Prairie, plus Clint Eastwood movie Dirty Harry. The trip offered them a rare behind-the-scenes look at the scale and structure of major studio operations. "Not having had any training at all, seeing how people were running things...how different equipment was, what to purchase, and just how things were run — it was quite helpful."

In Los Angeles, Ferguson and Tourell spent a day with legendary British director David Lean, whom they had first met in New Zealand. Ferguson had been asked to test Lean's camera for him, after it was repaired while he was in New Zealand. The two got on well. Learning that Ferguson and Tourell would be visiting LA, Lean showed them his Beverly Hills penthouse, and had them chauffeured around Hollywood in his Rolls-Royce.

Back in New Zealand, Ferguson covered the 1977 Silver Jubilee Tour of Queen Elizabeth II. He spent over a month documenting the Queen's travels across the Pacific Islands and New Zealand, for ITN in London. 

In 1979 Ferguson decided to go freelance, after Auckland producer Jack George invited him aboard Anglo-NZ co-production The Flying Kiwi. Ferguson shot roughly half the 26 episodes of the kidult adventure show. "Freelancing wasn't common in those days, so it was a bit petrifying. But it ended up being the best thing I did". He also helped out on post-apocalyptic action movie Battletruck, and IMAX film My Strange Uncle.

Through the late 1970s and 80s, Ferguson took on a wide range of educational and aid films, feeding "a thirst to travel to little-known and exotic places". Behind the camera, he captured daily life in remote parts of the world, far from the tourist trail. TVNZ documentary Come Over to My Place followed two New Zealand children who flew to a village in the Philippines, and spent two weeks living with host families as part of a World Vision initiative for the 1979 International Year of the Child. 

Ferguson went on to shoot films for World Vision and Encyclopaedia Britannica, including a series of short educational documentaries which captured the lives of children across Asia and the Pacific. Another series, Just One Child (1981), profiled the lives of children around the world, taking Ferguson from mountain communities in Ecuador and Guatemala to a Maasai village in Kenya and 80,000-strong refugee camps in Somalia. "Filming those refugee camps was another real eye-opener. It makes you think, what can you do for these people? Hopefully, people seeing what you're filming makes a difference."

Many of these films placed him in communities far off the map, reliant on local hosts to gain access. "I got into places you'd never normally get into, because you are dealing with local people who are taking you into their lives," he says. Reflecting on travels that took him to over 70 countries over the course of his career, he says that "circumstances may differ, but families and people prove to be little different wherever you go".

One international project really stands out on Ferguson's CV: Icebreaker - Family Life in the Soviet Union (1987). Ferguson initiated the six-part series, which was filmed across the vast reaches of the Soviet Union. The idea began with a dream. "One night I woke up. I had this dream I wanted to interview Gorbachev". Sharing the idea with former Advertising Photography colleague, director Loren Robb, Ferguson was steered away from concentrating on the political angle. But the fascination with the nation remained. Together, the pair devised a plan to document daily life across the USSR, much of it unknown to the West. "We wanted to shift the focus from politics to people."

After two years of negotiations with Soviet State Television, and a recce mission before filming began, Ferguson and Robb secured access, with the USSR agreeing to exercise no creative or financial control over the production. As producers, the pair led a five person New Zealand crew for eight months of filming, traversing 11 time zones. They were one of the first Western crews allowed to film so extensively.

Ferguson also served as cinematographer, shooting in temperatures ranging from minus 52 to 44 celsius. Some places were so remote, they could only be accessed by helicopter. Each episode followed a different Soviet family, offering ground level insights into everyday life. Icebreaker became the country's longest foreign shoot at the time. It aired internationally, including in the US, UK, France, Germany and, within Russia itself.

Realising it would be challenging to get sound and camera equipment replaced while on location, Ferguson had mortgaged his house in order to purchase sound and camera equipment. "We finished up travelling with 48 cases of gear." Back home, rather than let the gear sit idle, he launched a new venture: Beta Hire, a rental company for video equipment.

Ferguson continued to freelance into the 90s and early 2000s. He shot several documentaries for TV3’s Inside New Zealand slot, including The Battle of the Gunns (1994), a portrait of a Hawke’s Bay household caring for disabled residents; Apartment Life (2002), on the rise of urban living; and The Price of Kids (2002), which explored the pressures facing modern families. He also worked on  fly-on-the-wall reality series The Real Strip (2003), about the family-run White House strip club on Auckland’s Queen Street.

Ferguson began to take on fewer projects towards the 2000s. In 2010 he instigated a reunion of 200 plus people who had worked in the industry prior to 1980; the reunion was covered on RNZ show Spectrum. These days he lives in Devonport, Auckland.

Profile written by Alexandra Paterson; updated on 4 August 2025

Sources include
Malcolm Ferguson
Helen Vause, 'Pioneering film maker marks 90 years in style' (Interview) - The Devonport Flagstaff, 14 March 2025
Robin Turkel, 'No recession in TV’ Press' (Interview) - The Press, 19 August 1976
Unknown writer, 'Day-to-day lives of Soviet families recorded by N.Z. TV crew' - The Press, 17 February 1988
Unknown writer, 'Film-makers to learn from American crews' - The Press, 7 June 1976
Unknown writer, 'Glimpse of the Philippines' - The Press, 23 May 1979
Unknown writer, 'N.Z. film team to make Soviet documentaries' - The Press, 1 December 1986
Unknown writer, Production listings (The Flying Kiwi) - Celluloid Strip, Winter 1979, page 20