'I was struck by her humanity' - photographer who took incredible portrait of PM

Photographer Kirk Hargreaves didn't realise as he pressed the shutter, but his images of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wearing a headscarf would travel the world and be seen by millions.

Mr Hargreaves - a former news photographer for The Press who now works for Christchurch City Council - took an image of Ms Ardern which has been widely admired and spread worldwide.

The image shows her attending a meeting with Muslim community leaders in Christchurch following the mosque shootings on Friday in which 50 people died and 50 more were injured.

Speaking this morning with TVNZ1's Breakfast, Hargreaves said he actually managed to get the photo by showing up late.

"All the politicians, representatives of the Muslim community and a whole lot of media were at the Phillipstown community centre - they were all inside an old school classroom, and because I was late I couldn't get in the room - there were just backs to the door," he said.

"So I was actually just waiting outside, sort of feeling quite lost and lonely - not getting anything really ... and eventually, looking through the window, not being too close, being really respectful, quite a way away, my eyes adjusted ... Jacinda actually stood up.

"It was like seeing a wee bubble out of the darkness.

"It got tricky, technically, because of the reflections - it was so bright outside, there were bright shrubs and flowers and it was just so hard to try to get anything."

Mr Hargreaves said he had to wait for people to move out of the way and then take his shots as he quietly worked to find an angle which would allow him to get the photo.

This sort of image "will only happen once", he said, "and that's based around the horrendous sadness of the whole story that goes around the image.

"I was struck as a human being by her humanity - that may sound cheesy, but that's totally what I was resonating with when I took it, and that's how I knew it was so powerful.

"Her expression, her furrowed brow, the way she's clasping her hands, the way she's listening to these people in sadness and agony."