PHOTO CALL

When Rob Tucker called on fellow photojournalists to give their best shots for a Hospice Taranaki fundraising auction, images of Aotearoa's past came pouring in.

- Rob Tucker

The Wahine Disaster, Wellington Harbour, April 10, 1968, photo by Barry Durrant. The Dominion photographer saw the ferry capsize and was waiting on the beach at Seatoun when the first lifeboat came ashore. This picture ran right across the front page and was sought after by the cable services. “The next morning it was on the front page of all the main newspapers in the world." The ferry sinking claimed 53 lives.

“It is the first time photojournalists from around the country have come out of the woodwork to celebrate their amazing recordings of daily life in New Zealand. I seem to have opened a floodgate,” says Tucker, who is in the late stages of terminal cancer.

When he learnt the palliative-care organization was facing financial struggles, he decided to help those "angels of the night" who are helping him.

Photos in the growing collection, spanning about 130 years, will be printed, mounted and sold at an auction on September 24 at the Plymouth International Hotel.

“The prints are one-offs. They will not be reprinted again - ever,” Tucker says.