Aperture - The Life & Works of Ans Westra

Golden Bay based actor and director Martine Baanvinger, who wrote and starred in the award-winning play Solitude, collaborates with composer Mark Manson and visual artist Klaasz Breukel in this creative and innovative one-woman play about Ans Westra, a New Zealand Arts Foundation Icon photographer.

In 1957, Ans Westra emigrated from the Netherlands to New Zealand and began to take photos of her new homeland. Fascinated by Maori culture in particular, she created an intimate and uniquely historical documentation of Maori life which led to a successful career capturing the essence of the people of Aotearoa.

DramaLAB’s visually stunning and intimate portrait focuses on Westra’s childhood in The Netherlands, her immigration journey to New Zealand, and the start of her photography career in the 1960’s. Her first publications, including the controversial ‘Washday at the pa’, offered insight into the Maori way of life in rural Aotearoa at a time of urbanisation.

*** The Picton Show is sponsored by The Stevenson Collection, 15 High Street, Picton. Dubbed the Te Papa of Picton, the Collection includes original Ans Westra photographs. To arrange a viewing visit www.thestevensoncollection.com ***