A ‘magic’ moment as a king is farewelled
Virginia Winder tells the stories behind some of the images up for auction to raise money for Hospice Taranaki. This week: Wayne Harman’s memorable photo taken on a murky day.
It wasn’t until afterwards that press photographer Wayne Harman realised the significance of his ‘‘magical’’ picture of King Korokı¯ being carried up Taupiri Maunga.
While at the New Zealand Herald he was assigned the job and drove down from Auckland with fellow Herald photographer Michael Tubberty, and Weekly News photographers Leon Hamlet and Wally (Warehi) Britton.
First, they attended the tangi of the fifth Māori King, Korokı¯ Te Rata Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia.
King Korokı¯ died on May 18, 1966, and, on May 23, his coffin was closed and taken to the sacred burial ground on the mountain, which is sacred to Waikato-Tainui.
‘‘It was a real murky miserable day; it had been raining all morning,’’ he says.
But the weather added to the poignancy of the occasion.
‘‘It was quite magic the whole thing, the way the mist came down on these guys carrying the coffin, who were huffing and puffing.’’
At the time, Harman was 22 years old and just focused on the assignment.
‘‘Bear in mind, at the time, it just happened and we were doing our job. It wasn’t until afterwards you realised how magic it all was.’’
But picture editor, Graham Stewart, recognised the significance of the image and was able to talk the editor and his staff into using it.
‘‘The Herald in those days was a broadsheet paper and to use a picture right across the front page and with a byline was almost unheard of for photographers.’’
The picture was wired away to agencies overseas and picked up by other newspapers.
‘‘It seemed to draw all sorts of responses from all sorts of people. I think it was a pretty big deal, which bypassed me for a while,’’ Harman says. ‘‘Looking back that was probably the highlight picture really.’’
He entered the photo in the 1967 Balm Awards for photography, gaining a highly commended.
His black-and-white photo was beaten by a similar image in colour taken by Britton.
‘‘It was a lovely picture.’’ Tubberty was also shooting in colour using 16mm film. It was his day off and he was asked by an
Auckland undertaker to photograph the farewell of King Korokı¯. The images were later sent to the National Archives.
Now aged 77, Harman says he didn’t spend his whole career as a photographer.
It all began in 1961, when, as a 17-year-old straight from school he became a cadet photographer at his local paper, The Daily Telegraph in Napier.
Next, he went to Auckland, where he worked as a photographer for the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly and then went on to the NZ Herald.
In the late 1960s, he moved on to the picture desk, assigning photographers to jobs rather than being active in the field wielding a camera and for a brief time, The
Dominion (now the Dominion-Post).
Then he moved into editorial production.
But his King Korokı¯ picture lives on and has a new purpose.
The photo will be among more than 120 photojournalism images up for auction at the Plymouth International hotel on September 24 to raise money for Hospice Taranaki. The idea for the fundraiser came from veteran photojournalist Rob Tucker, who has terminal cancer and is under hospice care.
Tickets are now on sale and available from the Plymouth International or online at photojournalismnz.co.nz.