Ans Westra: A Life in Photography by Paul Moon – Book Launch Event Co-hosted with Te Ao Mārama
Jul 25 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Free
Presented by: Tauranga Art Gallery Toi Tauranga
Join us as we celebrate the launch of Ans Westra: A Life in Photography.
The in-conversation event will include Author Paul Moon, Gallerist David Aslop, and Lisa Van Holst – Ans’ daughter. Refreshments will be provided as well as a signing session by Paul following the talk.
A WOMAN DRIVEN TO PHOTOGRAPH.
The accomplishments of photographer Ans Westra, who took an estimated 325,000 photographs of New Zealand life over a 70-year career, are formidable. But despite being a pioneer of New Zealand social documentary photography, Westra herself has remained a somewhat enigmatic figure.
Now, a new biography by historian Paul Moon, to be published in May by Massey University Press, gives deep insights into a photographer who made it her life’s work to capture images of a nation.
Her gift was to make the ordinary seem extraordinary and her photographic catalogue is now widely thought of as a photo album of Aotearoa New Zealand. Her images serve as an unusually candid reminder of ‘how we were’ and what New Zealand life was like in previous decades. But her own life was complex and often challenging, and there were moments in her career — in particular, around the publication of the series of images known as Washday at the Pa — that enmeshed her in controversy.
‘As we swapped stories, I noticed that even when recounting some of the more challenging episodes from her past she often wore a look of placid resignation rather than regret,’ says Paul Moon. ‘Early on, I realised that this was a woman who had not let adverse experiences derail her.
‘This biography is an account of Ans Westra’s life through her eyes,’ says Moon. ‘It is also designed to be a corrective to such misrepresentations of her work.’
