Names are sought for this photo, taken at the end of te Heu Heu St in 1963. Photo / Ans Westra

It’s the ultimate case of putting names to faces, involving a famous New Zealand photographer and a slice of Taupō history.

Local businessman Chris Johnston has a collection of photos in his cafe Replete on te Heu Heu St, including a selection from Ans Westra.

Westra took hundreds of thousands of photos over the years, many of those in and around Taupō. She was particularly well known for her depictions of Māori life in the 20th Century.

Westra died in February 2023 at the age of 86, but work has continued to digitise 120,000 negatives – about one-third of her photos - with many that have never been seen in public before.

Johnston has several of her photos hanging in his cafe, including a large self portrait of Westra, taken on the highway next to her VW in National Park.

But he also has a few local photos prominently displayed that are lacking names.

“She was an artist, and recorded the place but was not very good at taking names.”

One of those images, taken in 1963, features a group of people standing at the end of te Heu Heu St in Taupō.

Johnston said they would love to know who the people are in the photo, and also those featured in another photo, taken near Atiamuri in 1972.

“Apparently she was coming down from Auckland – the car, the Zephyr, pulled out of Kinleith. She tailed it all the way and they pulled into this layby and she pulled in behind them and all seven (people) and all the dogs came out of the car and then she got a photo.”

He said they could be forestry workers because they were all wearing boots.

“She has got something like 350,000 negatives so it is a huge record of New Zealand ... and with modern technology and digitisation you can preserve them better.”

Davis Alsop from Suite Gallery got 120,000 of her negatives archived at Alexander Turnbull Library, which is part of the National Library of New Zealand, and was continuing to source names for many of those images.

Johnston said even in his own cafe, they have had some success at putting names to faces, incuding one man who walked in the door for breakfast and spotted a familiar face.

“He didn’t know us from anything, turns up for a coffee or a breakfast, sees a photo on the wall, and there is his father in it, so pretty cool.”

One of the photos in the cafe even had some of his chef’s cousins in there, which they were completely unware of until another cousin visited from overseas and recognised the people.

Westra was born in the Netherlands in 1936 and died in February 2023, at the gae of 86. Her work was

Johnston also has a collection of photos by Whites Aviation, which was a company that took black and white photos and recoloured them, including an image, also hanging in the cafe, of the Pink and White Terraces, taken in 1886.

They were hand-painted by a group of eight women, from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.

“For years I have collected Whites Aviation photos, some now hanging in Replete. To me they are snapshot of New Zealand, along with the story of Whites Aviation, a part of history sometimes forgotten.”