Smallwood and Mandela: this man photographed both, and he's donating 30,000 pieces to The Rooms

As far as freelance photographers in Newfoundland and Labrador are concerned, Bob Crocker is in a league of his own.

Having photographed Joey Smallwood, Jean Chrétien, and Nelson Mandela, Crocker's photographs were all over local news and publications for decades.

"We used to get paid about twenty dollars a picture," he said of his work during the 1970s.

Throughout those many years of taking snapshots, Crocker has amassed a personal collection of 30,000 photos — and has decided to donate all of them to The Rooms in St. John's.

Watching the photography landscape change

Crocker said the process of having those pictures come to life has changed a lot over the years.

"Most of the stuff that I started shooting back in the 70s was black and white, processed in a lab. My own lab. And printed – my own print," he told The St. John's Morning Show.

Those prints Crocker developed showcased some of the biggest moments in N.L history.

"For example I would go and do the swearing-in of the cabinet for Frank Moores. I worked on Joey [Smallwood]'s books, volumes five and six of the Books of Newfoundland," he said.

"I also did freelance photography, black and white, my own print, with a caption to deliver to the Daily News."

Crocker said he had one huge advantage over other photographers at the time – his pilot's license.

"When I had my pilot's license I was able to cover a lot of aerial photography stuff. If there was an event like the Cabot, I calls it the Cabot celebrations. I would get aboard the airplane and take a shot of the Matthew out in the bay. I'd just go do it. A lot of stuff I did for the sheer joy of doing it," he said.

"The cost was not even thought about. I just did it. It was crazy."

At the end of the day – despite all of the national figures and aerial shots – Crocker's favourite photo is one of sentimental value.

"My favourite picture would be this one here," he said, holding an image of a man on a river.

"It's of my dad. That's my dad salmon fishing. My dad's deceased now, since 2000."

Thousands and thousands of pictures

Combing through Crocker's collection was no small feat.

"First when we started off at The Rooms I had approximately 45 Bankers boxes, which are large boxes of negatives. So we culled through that. They've still got a lot of work to do with this to get this moved forward to get it to be on an exhibition. It's there for many years, which I'm very pleased with," he said.

"I thought it would be a great place to have this all preserved."

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