New focus for Godfrey Boehnke

A familiar camera-toting character on campus will have the lens turned on him on 2 July. Gottfried Boehnke, known as Godfrey, says farewell to his long-time place of work at a function to mark his retirement.

The staff photographer has been working for the University of Auckland for almost 50 years. At one point Godfrey lived on campus – his father was the campus custodian in the 1980s and the family lived in a house that used to sit where the Pacific Fale is today.

Over the decades, Godfrey has seen staff come and go, adjusted to the change from film to digital, and adapted to the growth in demand for images brought about by the internet.

But he’s not too sure how he will adapt to retirement.

“As my father would say, I’m comme si comme ça. I’m a little bit this way, a little bit that way,” he says. “I’m a bit sad and I’m a bit excited. I’m just thinking about what’s going to happen afterwards.

“I’ll miss the people. I made this place my family.”

He doesn’t mind saying that he had hit a very low ebb, suffering from depression in his twenties and even attempting to take his own life, not long before he took on the job at the University.

“After that, I was sitting down to dinner at my then girlfriend’s place, behind the cathedral in Parnell and she said ‘we’ve been going to a prayer meeting, would you like to come?’ I said ‘na’. This is a true story … she and her flatmate went down a staircase but I told her I was going to stay upstairs. She was a bit agitated I wasn’t coming as she knew it was going to be good for me.

“And then I just felt this kind of hand on my back. I turned around and there was nothing there ... it was pushing me. So I shot into the meeting and gave my life to Christ that night. That was the start of it all.”

Fresh outlook

With a renewed outlook on life Godfrey, already an accomplished photographer who’d worked in two well-known firms, and had also had a stint in the army, took on the task of becoming a university photographer.

In the early days, everything was shot on film using his Nikon Nikkormat or a Leica, and photos were delivered around departments.

“When I first started here, I actually tried to steer away from portraits and group shots, which wasn’t ideal, but it was because I felt so nervous being up close to all these important professors and people like that.

“But I soon got over it, and now I love those group shots! They’re a big challenge depending on numbers, how tall the people are, if there’s a language barrier ... I just love positioning and having that short relationship with them.”

As well as group shots, he shoots hundreds of portraits a year of staff members, what he affectionately calls the rogues' galleries. There have been hundreds of graduations and other events, new buildings and VIPs and, as anyone who has met Godfrey will know, there’s a story to tell for each.

Such as when Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was here in 1992, with a function at Old Government House (OGH) on 21 March.

“My boss Anton wanted me to photograph her and I was excited but was also extremely nervous as I was going to be the only photographer.

“I was clicking away … 30, 35, 40, 50 shots and then came the realisation ... hang on! Film cameras only take up to 36 shots! I hadn’t loaded the film properly and she’d already come in.

“So I loaded and continued doing the job the best I could … I think nobody was the wiser that I’d faffed it.”

He says after a while the nerves fell away and were replaced by the real photographic challenges of each shoot.

“They’re always different. Queen Elizabeth II was here and was heading into the ClockTower but while everything else was well organised, there was no one to hold the door open for her.

“So I rushed up to hold the door as she came through but next minute everyone was coming through and I was still holding the door when I was meant to be taking photos!”

He says dealing with security can also be a challenge. Later the same afternoon he ended up being dumped over a barrier on Queen Street for not having the right accreditation to photograph Her Majesty as she did a handshake walk.

Over the years he has mastered a technique he says has served him well.

“You have to develop a cunning plan of trying to get onside with security. Get there early and you know, it’s ‘g’day mate. Do you like fishing?’ or whatever, and get an ‘in’.”

He also has a tactic he says is useful when photographing people who are camera-shy. Some might call them ‘dad jokes’ but he reckons they’re just ice-breakers.

“I just jolly them up with those jokes. And sometimes if I get an inkling beforehand about the fact they are unwilling, I’ll take a few goodies in my bag to share, lollies even doughnuts.”

No favourites

He doesn’t like talking about “favourite” people he has photographed, although Sir Edmund Hillary is high on the list.

“But I don’t like differentiating between one and another. I genuinely do enjoy working with all people. I get quite sad when they leave.”

Back in the day he used to be a parachutist and so has enjoyed the times in which he’s been able to get up high to take photos.

“I don’t get asked to do aerials any more, maybe because of a lack of funds but I used to do those regularly. I did them in a Cessna – I preferred a Cessna 172 – and took the doors off. For an ex-parachutist, it’s like ‘yeah I’m home!’ I just love it. I was all strapped in so it was perfectly safe. One of my best aerials is of Browns Island.”

He says the reason he doesn’t do aerials now is probably to do with the preferred use of drones these days, but he’s never got the hang of them.

“I’m a drone-crasher!” he laughs.

He hasn’t done videography either, preferring to leave that to the experts.

But he is an expert fisherman and hopes to get out on the water more, and to shoot more landscapes, a favourite form of photography.

“When I was up at the University’s Marine Laboratory in Leigh, I found a great spot for a landscape shot of the land and Goat Island –those shots came out well.”

In his first week of retirement, from 5 July, he and his wife Ingrid will take a break to spend some time together. But they won’t be going on holiday because of their family commitments – their cats. “We have about seven cats but only two of them are officially ours. The rest seem to have adopted us from around the neighbourhood. Junior, a big white one for example, isn’t ours but sleeps on the bed!”

Godfrey also knows it’s a good time to get on top of some health issues he’s had over the past few years.

“I have a very caring wife and she’s onto it, but when I’m here at work I don’t often look after myself. I’m hoping to do that a bit more.”

That includes being able to spend more time in nature.

“I like to look at the bush and nature in general, and on campus I’ve spent time in the gardens, seeing what’s budded and what hasn’t.

“I have folders and folders of photos I’ve filed as ‘campus pretties’. So I’ll just have to do that elsewhere.”