Through the lens
If there was a crown for loudest laugh, it would probably be on Ans Westra’s head.
Say something to amuse the iconic Kiwi photographer and a booming laugh ricochets around her Lower Hutt home, rattling the artwork on the walls.
“I’m 84, I can laugh as loud as I want,” she declares, a cheeky glint in her now cloudy blue eyes. We’re five minutes into the interview and already we’ve reached peak Ans: funny, irreverent, no nonsense.
The mother of three and grandmother of six doesn’t like interviews, but she does like to chat. Our conversation swoops in and out of climate change, soup, driving without a licence and pandemics. She talks of Māori culture and travelling, of kindness and her beloved Green Party.
