Ans Westra was the Tylee Cottage artist in residence in 1993.
Ans Westra was the Tylee Cottage artist in residence in 1993.
In 1919, when the Sarjeant Gallery opened, Mayor Charles Mackay commissioned successful photographer Frank Denton to curate an international exhibition of art photography at the Sarjeant.
In 1926 more than 170 photographs were exhibited. Subsequently, 83 of the photographs were donated to the gallery's collection, making the Sarjeant the first gallery in New Zealand to seriously collect photography.
The Denton Collection is now of international significance and is New Zealand's largest, finest and most comprehensive public collection of pictorialist photographs. It created a rich photographic tradition at the Sarjeant and the gallery has collected and exhibited photography ever since Denton's landmark exhibition in 1926.
A photographer whose work is well represented in the Sarjeant Collection is Dutch-born New Zealand artist, Ans Westra. Inspired by the Family of Man photographic exhibition that toured the world throughout the 1950s, Westra began taking photographs in the humanist tradition in 1954. She was awarded the Companion of the Order of New Zealand Merit for services to photography in 1998.
"In my photography, I'm looking for communication between people and the right moment. Catching the right moment in full swing. One that sums up an emotion," Westra told Athol McCredie in The New Photography: New Zealand's first-generation contemporary photographers.
Westra was the Tylee Cottage artist in residence in 1993 when Bill Milbank was director of the Sarjeant. He acquired for the collection a portfolio of Westra's historical works that had been taken in the Whanganui area.
At the time of the residency, Westra said her daughter was wanting to attend Victoria University and she needed to look into ways to make more of a living from her work. She had been working freelance, producing material for many books such as Washday at the Pa (1964) for School Publications, Department of Education and photographs for the Māori Affairs department magazine Te Ao Hou.
"Bill suggested that the Tylee Cottage residency might be something I could be interested in. This was the first time that I actually had a steady income, rather than having to rely on freelance orders and Whanganui was still close enough to Wellington so I could be on hand in case of emergencies at home; the residency came at a very useful time."
Ans Westra 'Along Anzac Parade, Wanganui' 1993, toned silver gelatin print on paper. Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Gift of the artist, 1996.
Westra said this period was the beginning of her recognition as a serious artist.
"Bill's understanding of photography as a valid art form was perhaps ahead of his time, certainly in New Zealand."
In 1995/1996 the Sarjeant Gallery staged Westra's post-Tylee exhibition Wanganui Seen 1960–1993, and published a book of the same name. The first photographs had been taken in 1960, just three years after Westra had arrived in New Zealand, and others during her residency. To prepare the exhibition, she returned to Whanganui where she had the use of darkrooms at the gallery, and accommodation in Castlecliff and at Braeburn House.
"Sales to public institutions like the Sarjeant are always seen more as a recognition and as such are highly valued. For me this time was very important," she said.
Bill Milbank paid tribute to the "wonderful body" of Westra's photography that forms part of the Sarjeant photography collection. He said her work, and that of Richard Wootton, have provided Whanganui with a superb visual record of its people, places and events.
"Ans started as a documentary photographer and was particularly interested in people and Māori communities, and has continued in that vein. She was producing before I became involved as director in 1978, when she was already starting to build up a reputation," Milbank said.
Westra has used a medium-format, waist-level viewfinder camera for most of her life, which she feels allows her to be less obtrusive. She interacts very little during the events she records photographically, saying people seem to forget about her.
"What was always most interesting about Ans was her capacity to sidle around and get images of people not knowing that she was actually doing it. I'm sure she had her eye down on the scene just quietly sort of slipping around amidst people, and wonderful images were coming out as a result of her doing this on many occasions," Milbank said.
