Iconic NZ Photographer Ans Westra Has Passed Away

It is with great sadness that we announce that Ans Westra passed away at her home in Wellington on 26 February 2023 aged 86 years.

Anna Jacoba (Ans) Westra CNZM was a pioneer of documentary photography, and one of the first women to work in this area in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Born in 1936 in Leiden, Netherlands, Ans immigrated to New Zealand in 1957 at the age of 21, eventually basing herself in Wellington.

Self-taught, Ans spent long periods of time traveling around the country as a full-time freelance documentary photographer committed to observing and candidly documenting New Zealand life and culture.

In 1998 Westra was awarded the Companion of the Order of New Zealand Merit for services to photography.

A major exhibition of her work, Handboek: Ans Westra photographs, opened at the National Library Gallery in 2004 with an accompanying book and film, the exhibition was also shown at major centres around the country before travelling to the Museum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden.

In 2006 a documentary was made about the artist called Ans Westra: Private journeys/public thoughts, and in 2007 she was made an Arts Foundation Icon, an honour bestowed to a living circle of 20 New Zealand artists for their extraordinary lifetime achievements.

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

Ans is survived by her half-sister, three children and six grandchildren.

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