Anna Jacoba Westra (born 28 April 1936), generally known as Ans Westra, is a self-taught New Zealand photographer, with an interest in

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

. Her prominence as an artist and author was most amplified by her 1964 piece ''

Washday at the Pa ''Washday at the Pa'' is a New Zealand illustrated children's book by photographer Ans Westra that describes a day in the lives of a rural Māori people, Māori family. The book was first published by the government Department of Education (New ...

''.

Early life

She was born Anna Jacoba Westra in 1936 in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, Netherlands, the only child of Pieter Hein Westra and Hendrika Christina van Doorn.Handboek: Ans Westra Photographs, 2004, published by Blair Wakefield Exhibitions In 1953, Westra moved to Rotterdam and studied at the Industrieschool voor Meisjes, graduating in 1957 with a Diploma in Arts and Craft teaching, specialising in artistic needlework. The same year, she left the Netherlands for New Zealand, and she became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1963.

Career

Initial interest in photography

Westra was exposed to photography as a teenager by her stepfather. A visit in 1956 to the international exhibition ''

The Family of Man ''The Family of Man'' was an ambitious exhibition of 503 photography, photographs from 68 countries curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the New York City Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) Department of Photography. According to Steichen, ...

'' in Amsterdam, together with a book by Joan van der Keukens, ''Wij Zijn 17 (We Are Seventeen)'', inspired Ans' first photographic documentation, which featured her fellow students. Her obsession with capturing the world through a camera was instilled after encountering the famous Family of Man exhibition in Amsterdam. This utopian, quasi-anthropological exhibition, curated by MoMA’s

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography. Steichen was credited with tr ...

, toured the world from 1955 to 1963, and was a major influence on Westra’s work, as was precocious teenager Joan van der Keuken’s 1955 photobook Wij Zijn 17 (We Are 17), which depicts the lives of post-war Dutch youth. In 1957, Westra travelled to New Zealand to visit her father who had earlier immigrated. She stayed in Auckland and worked for eight months at

Crown Lynn Crown Lynn was a New Zealand ceramics manufacturer that operated under various names between 1854 and 1989. Early history The pottery's origins started with an 1854 land purchase at Hobsonville, near Auckland, by Rice Owen Clark. He had arriv ...

Potteries.

Professional photography

In 1958 she moved to Wellington, where she joined the Wellington Camera Club and worked in various local photographic studios. In 1960, Westra received international recognition winning a prize from the UK Photography magazine for her work entitled ''Assignment No. 2''. That same year Westra had her first photograph published in New Zealand on the cover of ''

Te Ao Hou / The New World ''Te Ao Hou / The New World'' was a quarterly magazine published in New Zealand from 1952 to 1975. It was published by the Māori Affairs Department and printed by Pegasus Press. It was bilingual, with articles in both English and Māori, and c ...

'', a magazine published by the

Department of Maori Affairs Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. In 1962 she began working as a full-time, freelance documentary photographer. Much of her early work was for the School Publications Branch of the Department of Education and ''Te Ao Hou''. In 1964 her school bulletin ''

'' was published, and distributed to primary school classrooms throughout New Zealand. Soon after its release the journal was withdrawn by order of the Minister of Education at the request of the Maori Women’s Welfare League. Later in 1964 ''Washday at the Pa'' was privately republished by the Caxton Press. An article written by academics in Auckland in 2016 about this event state: "In a way the book, and the feelings it inspired, appealed strongly to Pākehā ideas of Māori, more so than it reflected some important truth about Māori themselves." In 1967 ''Maori'' was published with photography by Westra and text by James Ritchie. In 1982 an archive of Westra's negatives was established at the

Alexander Turnbull Library The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...

, Wellington. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Westra undertook several artist-in-residences including at the

Dowse Art Museum The Dowse Art Museum is a municipal art gallery in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Opening in 1971 in the Lower Hutt CBD, The Dowse occupies a stand-alone building adjacent to other municipal facilities. The building was completely remodelled in 20 ...

, Lower Hutt (1988–89), the Tylee Cottage Residency, Wanganui (1993) and in 1996, she was awarded the inaugural Southland Art Foundation Artist in Residence award by Southland Art Foundation,

Southern Institute of Technology , image = Southern Institute of Technology (New Zealand) logo.jpg , image_size = 200px , motto = , tagline = , established = 1971; years ago , faculty = 387 FTE 2005 , head_label = , students ...

, Southland Museum and Art Gallery and

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...

. In 1998 she was artist-in-residence at the Otago School of Fine Arts,

Otago Polytechnic Otago Polytechnic was a public New Zealand tertiary education institute, centred in Dunedin with additional campuses in Cromwell and Auckland. Otago Polytechnic provided career-focused education and training, offering a range of New Zealand accr ...

. Westra was the subject of the 2006 documentary ''Ans Westra: Private Journeys/Public Thoughts'' by

Luit Bieringa Luit Bieringa (1942–2022) was a New Zealand art historian, art gallery director and documentary film maker. Bieringa was born in Groningen in the Netherlands and emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1956. Museum career He was Direct ...

. Westra's 2009 book and exhibition, ''The Crescent Moon: The Asian Face of Islam in New Zealand'' features her own photographs, with text by New Zealand writer

Adrienne Jansen Adrienne Jansen is a New Zealand creative writing teacher, editor and a writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She has worked closely with immigrants, and her writing often relates to the migrant experience. Biography Adrienne Jansen was ...

. The book's interviews and photographs of 37 individuals give insights into the lives of Asian Muslims in New Zealand. ''Washday at the Pa'' was reissued in 2011 by Suite Publishing to include other photos of the same family taken in 1998. In May 2013, Suite Publishing released Westra's publication: ''Our Future: Ngā Tau ki Muri'', which includes 137 often damning photographs of the New Zealand landscape, with text contributions from

Hone Tuwhare Honing is a kind of metalworking. Hone may also refer to: * Hone (name) (incl. Hōne), a list of people with the surname, given name or nickname * Hõne language Hõne is a Jukunoid language spoken in Gombe State and Taraba State, Nigeria ...

Russel Norman Russel William Norman (born 2 June 1967) is a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. He was a Member of Parliament and co-leader of the Green Party. Norman resigned as an MP in October 2015 to work as Executive Director of Greenpeace Aote ...

, Brian Turner,

David Eggleton David Eggleton (born 1952) is a New Zealand poet, critic and writer. Eggleton has been awarded the Ockham New Zealand Book Award for poetry and in 2019 was appointed New Zealand Poet Laureate, a title he held until 2022. Eggleton's work has app ...

and

David Lange David Russell Lange ( ; 4 August 1942 – 13 August 2005) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand from 1984 to 1989. Lange was born and brought up in Otahuhu, the son of a medical doctor. He became ...

. Between February 2013 and April 2014, Westra undertook her ''Full Circle Tour'' to revisit centres where she had been particularly active during her career. She visited

Ruatoria Ruatoria ( mi, Ruatōria) is a town in the Waiapu Valley of the Gisborne Region in the northeastern corner of New Zealand's North Island. The town was originally known as Cross Roads then Manutahi and was later named Ruatorea in 1913, after the Mā ...

Ruatoki Ruatoki or Rūātoki is a district in the eastern Bay of Plenty of New Zealand, just south of the small town of Tāneatua and approximately 20 km south of the city of Whakatāne. The Whakatāne River runs northwards through the Ruatoki Valle ...

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

, the

Whanganui River The Whanganui River is a major river in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the country's third-longest river, and has special status owing to its importance to the region's Māori people. In March 2017 it became the world's second natura ...

Kaitaia Kaitaia ( mi, Kaitāia) is a town in the Far North District of New Zealand, at the base of the Aupouri Peninsula, about 160 km northwest of Whangārei. It is the last major settlement on New Zealand State Highway 1, State Highway 1. Ahipara ...

Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

and

Stewart Island Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...

. In 2014, the digitization of Westra's archive of negatives held at the

, Wellington, came into effect through her representative, Suite Tirohanga. Westra's print ''Untitled, from Washday at the Pa, 1963'', set a new auction record price at NZ$10,575 at Webb's in Auckland, New Zealand, on 11 June 2015.

Westra Museum

On 20 April 2016 a museum in Wellington was established, dedicated to Westra's work.

Honours and awards

Westra received a Certificate of Excellence from the New York World’s Fair photographic exhibition in 1964–1965. Westra was the Pacific regional winner of the Commonwealth Photography Award in 1986, travelling to the Philippines to photograph and then onwards to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and America. In the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, Westra was appointed a

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of New Zealand, Queen of New Zealand, "for those ...

, for services to photography, and in 2007 she became an

Arts Foundation of New Zealand 'The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi is a New Zealand arts organisation that supports artistic excellence and facilitates private philanthropy through raising funds for the arts and allocating it to New Zealand artists. The concept ...

Icon artist. In 2015, Westra received an honorary doctorate from Massey University in recognition of her long-standing contribution to New Zealand’s visual culture.

Criticism

Westra has faced criticism for her ownership of her images of Māori, that she built her career on images of Māori and that the subjects and their relations are not able to use the photographs without asking Westra for permission. The content being through a Pākehā gaze is also criticised including the controversy of ''Washday at the Pa.''

Personal life

In 1965 Westra returned to the Netherlands to live until 1969. She has three children.

References

External links

A living museum for Ans Westra - RadioNZ 20 April 2016

Museum honouring Ans Westra opens in Wellington - NewsHub 19 April 2016

Introduction to the Westra Museum, featuring Ans Westra and director David Alsop.Works in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

''Handboek'' exhibition, book and DVD site

in issue 100 of the journal ''Art New Zealand''
Photographs by Ans Westra
at Westra Museum
''Full Circle Tour'' Interview with Ans Westra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westra, Ans 1936 births Living people New Zealand women photographers Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit Dutch emigrants to New Zealand Dutch photographers People from Leiden Naturalised citizens of New Zealand