Born in Leiden, the Netherlands, Westra immigrated to New Zealand in 1957. She began her career in 1962 as a fulltime freelance photographer, working mainly for the Department of Education and Te Ao Hou, a magazine published by the Department of Maori Affairs.
In 1962 Westra provided the text and images for the ‘Washday at the Pa’, a school journal made for eight-year olds. The book followed a day in the life of a rural Maori family awaiting relocation to a state house in the city but was controversially withdrawn from circulation by the Department following protests by the Maori Women’s Welfare League
I think the images are open and honest, they show the situation as it was warts and all and this is an angle I would like to explore with my Body of Work.
Bibliography
Research
Access 28/12/19
https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/4728/02_whole.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ans_Westra
https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/953
https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/ans-westra
https://www.art-newzealand.com/Issue100/ans.htm
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/99216243/the-bohemian-life-of-ans-westra-in-print
Michele Usher 