Stunning picture of Muldoon unearthed in private collection

Tuesday, 12 November 2024

A stunning previously unpublished picture of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon and i

Wellington photographer Simon Woolf recently posted images taken by Barry Durrant, who worked for The Dominion newspaper from the early 1960s until 1987. Well known as a tramper, the photos are an important record of Wellington and the social history of New Zealand.

Woolf had been approached by Durrant’s wife Eva, who told The Post she had no idea how many pictures there were in the collection.

“There are cartons and cartons of pictures.”

Finding a home for such large collection is not easy and Woolf said it would be a shame to see the collection broken up.

“I have seen a number of individual photographers pass away and their valuable negative and digital files dumped.”

Durrant is in his 80s, and his family are aware of the historical value of his images, Woolf said.

“They are far from alone in wishing to see an important archive preserved.”

Managing director of Stuff masthead publishing Joanna Norris said Durrant was an outstanding photographer who took what are now regarded as iconic images.

Stuff holds a large archive of his work, along with images by other staff photographers over the past century. Stuff owns the copyright for images captured by staff photographers in the course of their work and retain the digital versions.

It's possible the images Durrant’s family hold are duplicates of copyrighted images already in the Stuff archive, but there may also be other images held by the family that Stuff does not hold, she said.

“We are happy to work with Barry's family to determine exactly what's in the collection they have.”

Eva said her only concern is preserving the images and she does not want any money.

“They should not be locked up in boxes, I want people to be able to see them.”

Woolf said the collection held many pictures which did not appear to have been published, some of them of prime ministers Keith Holyoake and Muldoon, who Durrant had a good relationship with.

There are also significant pictures of the late Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir John Walker, including the 1974 race where Walker and Filbert Bayi both broke the world 1500m record.

One of the features of the collection is the large number of tramping images from the Tararuas. In the period before helicopters were routinely used in rescues, Durrant would join rescue parties. One of his images (which is held by Stuff) is of trampers carrying out Peter Langer's body from the Tararuas in 1964.

Woolf is planning an exhibition of Durrant’s work with the proceeds going to the children’s hospital.

Te Papa curator of photography Athol McCredie said the institution gets offered private collections a few times a year.

“We’re always open to offers of private collections, whether for sale or as donations.”

If you are considering gifting a photographic collection it should be well organised and documented, and include information like dates, the subject and the photographer.

“Our acquisition process is rigorous, an in-depth assessment process evaluates its curatorial value to our collection, its condition, cataloguing, storage and imaging requirements, copyright, and other factors.”