Forty years of colour newspaper photos in Hawke's Bay from pioneer Rich Marshall

One of Rich Marshall's great colour shots shows prop Bruce Dunstan on the charge against France.

The late Rich Marshall certainly left his photographic mark on the pages of Napier's Daily Telegraph during the more than 30 years of service behind the lens that he put it.

And on two historic moments in the evolution of the newspaper business in Hawke's Bay, and New Zealand for that matter, he left a colourful mark.

One of those marks was 40 years ago this month when he used colour film to shoot pictures at the McLean Park rugby clash between Hawke's Bay and the touring French side.

The match was on July 3, 1979, and the following day was the first time for the publication that a news event had been covered in colour, and naturally got the reading populace excited as it signalled the growing advancement of colour in an industry which up until then had been black and white.

Rich Marshall, chief photographer, with The Daily Telegraph, broke new ground in the use of colour 40 years ago.

"Another advance in The Daily Telegraph's service to its readers" was how the landmark was described.

However, it was not the first time Marshall had worked his colourful photography magic for the paper he joined in 1965.

He was widely seen as a pioneer in the use of colour in newspapers, and in the Christmas of 1974 he underlined that in a major way.

For he took, developed, produced and prepared the country's first front-page colour photo — there on the front page of The Daily Telegraph was a glowing image of Santa Claus in sharp, glowing colour.

So when the time came for the paper to put together its first colour page, and the first for a daily newspaper anywhere in the land, he was certainly the man to create it.

It was not an easy task, but skill and determination can achieve great results.

As noted by the editor of the day — "with the help of New Zealand Couriers Ltd and the Auckland processing firm of Scanatronics Ltd we have, for the first time, illustrated a news event in colour just as quickly as we could have done it in black and white".

Another classic colour shot from the lens of Rich Marshall which now has pride of place in one of Eddie Wilson's scrapbooks.

The photos he took, of dramatic tries being scored and tackles being made, were startling.

Unfortunately the historic event for the newspaper was not so historic for the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union, with France taking out the match 31-13, although selector-coach and former Magpie Neil Thimbleby was critical of the way the referee had dealt with parts of the match, including the "latitude" he gave to the French players in going down on the ball and the way they obstructed in the line-outs.

Marshall captured the power and pace of the match brilliantly, as he did with any challenge he was called upon to capture on film.

For Napier rugby stalwart Eddie Wilson, that eventful day and moment in colour publishing became part of his extensive collection of clippings, although he was not too sure if he had actually made it that match or not.

"Going back a bit now ... but I think I may have gone along."

It would have been one of many hundreds of matches he has attended, having been with the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union for 15 years as well as a long-time membership of the Marist club.

He clipped the remarkable colour photos and match reports and "put them in the book" within a few days.

"So they've faded a bit."

He remembered working in with Marshall during those rugby years and was impressed by the shots he turned out.

Marshall was always on the lookout for that special "shot".

In the wake of Cyclone Bola he took up the opportunity to fly to Wairoa to photograph the devastation — and at the time visibility was effectively zilch.

On another occasion be once recalled flying out in a fixed-wing aircraft to get shots of a Japanese fishing trawler which had strayed inside the legal limit.

They flew so close he and the pilot could see the startled faces of the fishermen aboard, and at the same time he was startled by a loud howling noise.

When they got back to aerodrome he asked the pilot what the noise was and was told it was aircraft's stall alarm.

To get the shots he was after he wanted a low and slow pass ... and he got it.

Marshall retired from front-line photography but continued his love for scuba-expeditions (his under water shots were also startling) and he passed away at the age of 77 in 2004.

He left his mark in the history of New Zealand newspaper photography.

A very colourful mark.