Request a Photo – Ans Westra

Have your family life recorded by one of New Zealand’s most famous and notable photographers – Ans Westra. These personal photographs may become part of our very first exhibition in the new Dutch Connection gallery. You, your children or grandchildren could also feature in a groot foto boek that we will publish about the Nederlanders in New Zealand.
All you need to do is send us an email*. Ans will then contact you, to see if and when she can fit you in. Remember that she needs to tour the entire country, and that it may take a while before she arrives in your neck of the woods.

You will need to make your home available to Ans, for a few hours, as this ‘participant photographer’ takes pictures of you and your family in your environment. You also need to do a half hour interview over the phone, to talk about your life with our interviewer. This is your opportunity to record your story for future generations – uw verhaal, bewaard voor het nageslacht. All we ask from you, is that you make a donation to the Museum, to your ability.

Ans will travel the country to take photographs of Dutch people – oud en jong. If you know of somebody with a Dutch connection, whose story we should tell, let us know? It could be you!

Ans Westra
Ans acquired national fame after the publication of ‘Washday at the Pah’. The Minister of Education decided to destroy the print run of 38,000 books in 1964 – because they gave too honest a picture of the living conditions for Maori people. Too Dutch, you could almost say…

That was typically Ans. She wasn’t interested in taking smiley tourism pictures, but chose to depict real life, with real people. And that’s exactly what she wants to do now. Over a period of 5 decades Ans has created a photographic record of Maori life, and lately she has delved into the Muslim world which culminated in the book ‘The Crescent Moon: The Asian Face of Islam in New Zealand’.

Ans would now like to return to her roots. She’s going Dutch, and we’ll all be the richer for it with this national record of our lives!

Would you like Ans to photograph you*? Send us an email, and we will get Ans to contact you.

*Please note that Ans may not be able to photograph everybody on her list. She will make those decisions based on artistic and practical reasons. Please don’t be offended if she can’t photograph you. Or if she can’t include your photos in the exhibition.