Collectively they are an important historical document.

Images from a brief 10-year window in time, images of where we're from and how we lived. Images from when Tauranga was metamorphosing from a humble coastal fishing village into a modern city.

'History is the attraction. People like finding their street, where they lived,” says veteran lens man Alf Rendell. Even if those images are shot from a few thousand feet and you can only see roofs.

There's a strong case for these pictures to be held in perpetuity for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations of Tauranga people.

They are the 120 photographs contained in photographer Alf Rendell's ‘Historic Tauranga from Above' – a special kind of book featuring aerial photographs of Tauranga and surrounds taken from the open cockpit of a biplane between 1946 and 1956.

The book's a collaboration with Alf's friend and prominent Tauranga historian Fiona Kean.

Today Alf's sitting in a pop-up shop at the Goddard Centre. The walls are lined with the photos from the book and Alf himself, a mite of a man bearing down on 100 years, is surrounded by copies of the book.

'No, I am not sick of signing them. People are lovely and I enjoy chatting with them.”

The other day a woman came into the shop and bought one of Alf's books. 'She said I was the photographer at her sister's wedding. That would have been a long time ago.” Alf was shooting weddings up until 1957, so it was a long time ago.

'But it was lovely to talk to her.”

He's adamant the images of Tauranga should be bequeathed to the city. 'I want them to stay together. I do not want the collection split up and sold.”

He may get his wish. The Weekend Sun's been told there are moves to have the collection safeguarded, possibly in the Tauranga City Council's trove of antiquities and artefacts in storage at Mount Maunganui – treasures waiting for a museum.

That would please the photographer.

The first run of Alf's book flew out the door. The books sitting in the pop-up are a second run. The cluster of Paper Plus stores in Tauranga financed the reprint, marketed it and are selling it. A copy costs $39.99 each – and $10 from each of the 2000 copies will go to Waipuna Hospice.

If you drop by the pop-up at the Goddard Centre Alf will probably be there and would be very happy to add his signature.

He's a man with history and humour. When the reporter introduces himself and reminds Alf we met eighteen months ago, he shrugs and smiles.

'If it happened before yesterday I wouldn't remember.”