Handboek - Ans Westra Photographs

This is a second-hand copy of the book Handboek - Ans Westra Photographs.

Condition: This is a used book in very good condition.

Publisher: Blair Wakefield Exhibitions (BWX)
Year: 2004
ISBN: 0476008077
Format: Hardback with dustjacket
Pages: 224
Condition: Used (Very Good)

Publishers blurb:

Both an exhibition and publication Handboek: Ans Westra Photographs provides an in-depth insight into the 45-year photographic journey by one of New Zealand’s most persistent documenters. Handboek comprises a gallery of Westra’s most revealing and challenging documentary images.

Born in Leiden, the Netherlands, Ans Westra came to New Zealand in 1957. In a few short years, she was to commence on her life-long photographic journey documenting the lives and cultures of New Zealanders during a period of cultural, social and generational change.

The comfortable conformity of the late 40s and 50s in New Zealand was about to be disturbed by the increasing post-war arrival of European migrants and, more importantly, the urban shift of Mäori, which gained momentum in the 1950s. As a society, New Zealand and its citizens were far from prepared to accommodate the difficulties accompanying such a challenge to their homogenous cultural, social and institutional frameworks.

Ans Westra's arrival in New Zealand coincided with that shift and the resultant changes and tensions which have characterised and continue to characterise New Zealand’s social and cultural evolution.

The texts and images in Handboek take us through this remarkable photographic journey and allow us all to view or review our own position vis-a-vis the stories that journey conveys.

The 130 + photographs reproduced here in full plates and essay illustrations include many images not seen or published before. While the bulk of the photographer’s images have appeared in the many publications she has contributed to, this comprehensive survey, accompanied by some of the best writing yet on the photographer, provides the reader and viewer with a rare insight into Ans Westra’s achievements.