BRYNN'S BLOG
Together Brynn and Kim are asking for used or new digital cameras with a capacity of 5 megapixels or greater to be donated to the digital photography program at the Immokalee High school.
Or the time Chinese police followed her crew around Or the time she was the first American allowed complete freedom to shoot any photos she wanted in Castro's "Oh, great stories," Bruijn says. "Great, great stories. "It's the most wonderful job in the world. There is no other job as great as this." Still, Bruijn prefers to let her photos do the talking. Those photos have talked on the pages of "National Geographic," "Harper's Bazaar" and "Cosmopolitan" magazines, and now they're talking again in a brand-new exhibit at The von Liebig Art Center in "I really feel like I speak better through the lens than with my mouth," Bruijn says and laughs. "Although if you ask my husband, my mouth is wagging all the time." Curator Ginamarie Pugliese says there's an immediate emotional pull to Bruijn's photos. "I just fell in love with the work," Pugliese says. "The images are so intense. "They focus on the human condition. They really present the soul of the people who are in them." The exhibit shows people in Pugliese wanted something to tie the 33 years of images together, and she eventually struck on the novel "Alice in Wonderland" - with viewers of the photos doubling as Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole into a strange new world. So the "Curiouser and Curiouser" exhibit groups the photos into themes and quotes from the book. And, like "They look so foreign, but they're not so foreign," Bruijn says. "They want the same things we want." Her photos show butchers in a Singapore meat market, mountain guides in Nepal, street kids in Mali and Indonesia, a flower seller in Indonesia, saffron pickers in Kashmir, a woman preparing dinner in Morocco, a wedding in Uzbekistan, kids playing cards in India, cock fights in Bali and much more. To get those photos, Bruijn has mastered the art of blending into the background. She wears muted colors and often hides her 35-millimeter camera in the folds and pockets of her native clothes. Then she waits. It's an old photographer's trick, she says. The best photos take infinite patience. "If you stay in one place very quietly, the shot will come to you," she says. Sometimes those photos mean taking risks. When she was in That was a close call, she says. At the Tibetan border, they split up their group to make them less obvious and snuck out to safety. Otherwise, they might have wound up in a Chinese jail. There's often danger, Bruijn says, and she has to weigh that against the benefit. "We always call that calculated danger," she says. "You take a calculated risk. You assess the situation, and take the risks that are going to pay off and not get you into any trouble." Bruijn says it's fascinating to see all these photos gathered in one place for the "It's always a little bit amazing," she says. "I always look at these images and get a little bit of the feeling of, 'Gee, did I do that?'" Even so, each photo brings back sharp memories. And, of course, lots of stories. "I've had a great ride," she says. And she's nowhere near done, she adds. She's still planning trips to "I have no plans to stop," she says. She's hesitant to reveal her age, at first, because she knows the stigma that comes with it. But she certainly doesn't feel 64, she says. She's brimming with energy and passion. "It's not age," she says matter-of-factly. "It's attitude. "I really feel that at my age now, I'm just really getting good. And there's so much more I want to say."
The August issue of E Bella hits the stands tomorrow featuring Brynn. In an article titled "An Adventurer's Life" editor Candace Rotolo really captures Brynn personality and life's passion : photography. In addition to the insightful look at Brynn's colorful past, E Bella details the launch of Brynn's Cameras for Kids Program. Pick a copy to learn more about Brynn and her journey as an artist.
Camera for Kids launched this month.
Distant Wonderlands - A Review of Curiouser & Curiouser
Photographer Brynn Bruijn doesn't carry a camera: she carries a portable rabbit hole. And through that rabbit hole, she tumbles into strange new worlds that - at second glance - really aren't so strange at all.
Luckily, we get to take that incredible journey with her.
Viewers of Bruijn's journalistic photos can peer into those other worlds in "Curiouser and Curiouser," her current exhibit at Naples' von Liebig Art Center.
The exhibit offers an enlightening glimpse into the cultures of Tibet, Nepal, Cuba, Indonesia, Brazil and many other far-flung places.
Bruijn has a sharp eye for composition and telling detail, and that's undoubtedly why she's worked for decades for such magazines as "National Geographic," "Harper's Bazaar" and "Cosmopolitan."
Her photos show butchers in a Singapore meat market, street kids in Mali and Indonesia, saffron pickers in Kashmir, a woman preparing dinner in Morocco, kids playing cards, and much more.
Curators Kristina Boudreault and Ginamarie Pugliese came up with a clever device to tie it all together: An "Alice in Wonderland" theme, with Bruijn doubling as Alice falling into a land full of wonders.
In the entryway to the gallery, visitors see quotes from the book projected on the wall. Similar quotes are featured on plaques throughout the exhibit, usually relating to themes such as solitude, religion and jobs.
But, really, all the Alice stuff is just glue to hold everything together. You're there to see the photos - and what accomplished photos they are.
In the "Lonely Sherpa," a Nepalese mountain guide walks along a ridge, a billowing cloud and towering peaks behind him. The sherpa's face is in shadows, lending the whole image a feeling of quiet isolation.
Bruijn uses that shadow trick often and to good effect. Sometimes photos work better when you can't see the person's face; it allows you to project yourself more easily in that person's place.
With her lens, Bruijn examines how people in other countries make a living, pray, prepare their food, teach their children, pass the time and do other familiar things. Some images, though, come much closer to home. One photo catches people praying at the opening of a Habitat for Humanity house in the United States. The central image is the Bible, open and looming, but Bruijn also manages to capture exquisite detail, such as each white button on the minister's vanilla-white suit.
Many of these images are universal, even if the surrounding details are unfamiliar: a man wolf-whistling at a woman stepping off a curb in Cuba; a toddler with a yogurt-smeared face in Tibet; a young couple getting married in Uzbekistan.
Other images are less familiar: a cock fight in Bali; a Chinese woman with tiny, bound feet; Mali kids balancing their study slates on their heads so the written words will sink into their brains.
Some of Bruijn's images are candids, snapped after she hangs around for hours or days and the subjects forget she's there. Others are portraits, including a particularly compelling image of a Tibetan lama, a Buddhist master. The man peers amiably at the viewer, and his eyes twinkle with wisdom, kindness and good humor.
To all these images, Bruijn brings a stunning sense of color and composition. Just check out the elegant image of a woman sitting against a tree in Nepal. It's beautiful in its bare simplicity.
If Bruijn is Alice, then this is her Wonderland: a place bursting with color and beauty and human compassion. And it's certainly worth a tumble down that rabbit hole.
The Adventures of a Photographer
By Charles Runnells , Ft. Myers News Press
In three decades of globe-hopping and shutter-snapping, Brynn Bruijn has collected some great stories - exciting souvenirs from a lifetime as a professional photographer. Take, for example, the time snipers shot at her family in
Curiouser & Curiouser Exhibit Opens in Naples.
A sampling of over 70 images premiered Friday, March 7th to a packed crowd at the Von Liebig Art Center in downtown Naples. Brynn Bruijn was on hand to sign books about the show and dicuss the exhibt that highlight a few of the images from her vast archive of photographs captured all around the world over the last three decades. 
All framed, numbered and signed pieces from the show on display may be purchased at the cost of $550.00 each. Additional selections from her archives are available in select sizes and framing options. Pricing by request.
Brynn featured in February Issue of N Magazine
Brynn Bruijn to give speech in Naples
Lunch With the Arts
The von Liebig Art Center in Naples Florida will present the traveling retrospective exhibition, Curiouser and Curiouser: What a Wonder Is This World! Selected images from the life’s work of documentary photographer, Brynn Bruijn, detail the daily activities of people from Africa, China, Europe, Russia, and Tibet, while textual references from Lewis Carroll’s beloved book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, guide us into Bruijn’s world of adventure and encourage us to look at the ordinary in extraordinary ways. Exhibited in the Frederick O. Watson Gallery.
Behind the Lens ; All over the World
The Naples Press Club speaks with Brynn Bruijn
The combined talent that comprises the membership of the
Naples Press Club has from its beginning been remarkable; however,
with the addition of Brynn Bruijn, the club’s cup truly runneth over.
Unlike most novices who probably began with an Eastman
Kodak Brownie, Brynn began her incredible career in
photojournalism — appearing in the best magazines,
featured in six books — with an underwater camera in Saudi
international marketing, she found opportunities to photograph
in some of the world’s most beautiful and dangerous locations.
Brynn recounts that after she and Peter moved to Beirut,
they were caught in the middle of the conflict and survived
by hiding under their bed.
“As we were trying to avoid the snipers,” she said, “my
Dutch husband was reminded of his childhood during the
Second World War.” More upsetting yet, many mornings the
bodies of dead snipers from the previous night’s fighting could
be seen on the streets. “When my daughter asked why there
were so many men lying in the street, I told her that they
were very tired.” By this time Brynn had progressed to a
Nikon F-2 but wisely put her photography on hold until the
family could escape through the
the airport.
While living in
Brown) was a regular contributor to numerous
European and American magazines including Town & Country,
Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and National Geographic.
After moving here, to a home with an office painted a rich
“tomato” red and with shelves upon shelves of books in
fastidious order, she became the 2005 winner of two Pinnacle
Awards for Best Interior Design Firm Magazine Advertising.
Her energy appears limitless. Her work in
selected as a UNESCO Cultural Project of the Decade. She
has been a guest speaker in the Great Hall of
representing The
for Save the Children and UNICEF.
The pictures you see on these pages will be on the walls
in her one-woman show at the Von Liebig next March, 2008.
It will then tour other museums in the U.S.
A Journey into Tibet thru the eye of a Photographer,
Brynn Bruijn has been to Timbuktu and back — seen the country's mud mosques, the colorful prayer robes, the sand storms. The base camp of Everest. The foot of the Himalayas. The forests of the Amazon. All images netted by Bruijn. Her pursuit, for over 30 years, has been to capture moments of humanity in some of the most unforgiving environments on earth.
For Bruijn (pronounced Brown), the camera's shutter is a gatekeeper of human experience and the aperture of her lens has, in many ways, become the aperture of her own eye. Her resume reads like a Clive Cussler adventure novel. She has freelanced for dozens of publications, including Cosmopolitan, National Geographic and Food & Wine magazine.
She's photographed everything from the bombing of Beirut, where she lived in 1978, to cooking with Julia Child.With each shot she's done more than point and shoot, she says. "You don't take a picture of the face," she says. "You take a picture of the heart."
• • •
Two decades have passed since Bruijn had a conversation with the Dali Lama. The photographer first met His Holiness in the early '80s, during a lecture series in Holland. "I spent three days with him. There was very little said," she remembers. "I mean, there wasn't anything really said verbally between us, but we certainly were communicating. "His Holiness is one of those people who when you meet you are totally at ease. You know that for the 30 seconds or however long you are with him that he is totally right there in the moment. He's not thinking about anything else."
When they met again in 1985, the Dali Lama sent her on one of the most important assignments of her career: Go to Chinese controlled Tibet and photograph treasured antiques left behind during the Cultural Revolution. The three-month expedition was funded in part by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
"All the Chinese government knew is we were in Tibet for the Rijksmuseum. They didn't know that we were documenting Tibetan art. If they did, they would have thrown us out of the country," Bruijn says. Besides fulfilling the request of the Dali Lama, the photographs became a cultural resource of Tibetan art for multiple art and textbooks. "Very few people who study this stuff will ever go to Shalu," Bruijn says.
Bruijn's work also helped inspire UNESCO to make preserving the monastery a priority. Her photos were also featured in National Geographic magazine and became an exhibit at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in the late 80s. Bruijn took some of the first photographs inside Shalu Monastery, a famous Buddhist teaching center. The spiritual school was founded in the 11th century. "Shalu was the jewel in the crown," Bruijn says. "But the temple was in such ruin that we had to build scaffolding to move around inside. There was no light either. In order to take pictures, we had use candles."
Now, Bruijn's work will again be featured as part of an exhibit at C.W. Smith Imported Antiques on 3rd Street in Naples. The collection of 14 photos, which are reproductions from Bruijn's original Shalu shots, is titled, "Discovering Shalu, Tibetan Images of Enlightenment."
• • •
The light table in the corner of the Bruijn's home office in Naples illuminates brown-gray strands of negatives from a recent photo shoot. The thin celluloid strips hold pictures of an ornate Naples room — beige furniture, high ceilings and marble décor. Although she has started to use digital photography, Bruijn likes the tactile nature of film. Also on the light table, a sleeve of slides shines with pictures of travels. A butcher in China, taking a cleaver to a lump of bloodied beef. A child on the Northern Plateau of Tibet with a face covered in Yak milk. The table's soft white glow washes over a wall of history books, the collection of swords she acquired from her time in the Middle East and a rice bowl from Tibet.
Her office is a stew pot, steaming with mementos from expeditions and photo assignments — each object a source of a story. "I ate every meal out of that bowl," she says, pointing to the shallow, pock-marked bowl. "We lived with locals when we were there. We slept on the floor. And whatever they ate, we ate. They have the most amazing yogurt you could ever, ever have in Tibet made out of goat and yak milk." She stops and coughs. Takes a quick breath. Coughs again. Bruijn's speech is punctuated with these thick, reverberating coughs. Sentences are often broken mid-thought by the sound.
"I'm not getting sick," she assures, clearing her throat. "It's from living in too many places with too high of an altitude, for too long." It makes sense that Bruijn's body has become a sort of carryall of her many photo assignments. Since early 1974, she has lived or worked in an estimated 32 countries, including Holland, India, China, Africa and the former Soviet Union.
"I'm most comfortable on assignment," she says, "I don't need Hiltons. Just a tent if one's around. You don't see the people — the cultures — bounding from one Hilton to another." Bruijn started her photography career when she moved to Saudi Arabia with her husband Peter in the early '70s. A mechanical engineer from Holland, Peter took a post as a salesman for a heavy construction equipment company in the Middle East kingdom. "There's not much for a female to do in Saudi Arabia," Peter Bruijn says. "We had two young children at the time. Brynn stayed home and watched them." "We had this Swede for a neighbor" she says. "He was really into scuba diving. He was building these aquariums for a tropical fish business that he was starting." Each day the neighbor and his friends would go to the Red Sea, take underwater pictures and collect fish.
"I started to notice these really hot men pass the compound each day on their way to go diving. Well, I wanted to go with them." So, by way of introduction, Bruijn began baking brownies and other goodies and would leave them for the men as they passed.
"The best way to a bachelor's heart is through his stomach," she laughs. In fact, food is the way she first lured her Peter on a date. "I met her in the airport in Wisconsin," says Peter. "We were both sending friends off. She came up to talk to me — she talks to everyone — she said she noticed my accent and said, 'I have a piece of Dutch cheese in my pocket,' and asked me if I wanted to get a cup of coffee." Back in Saudi Arabia, Bruijn's flirtatious cooking got her a spot in the scuba group. She bought an underwater camera, learned how to dive and, most important, take photos. "That was my first real experience with photography," she says. "I showed the guys I was with some of the photos I took, the first couple weeks. They said they were pretty good for a beginner and in a year I'd be taking as good of shots as they were. After a month, I was taking the best pictures of the bunch."
• • •
A painting of the three-headed, eight-armed Hayagriva — or horse neck — guards the South entrance of Shalu monastery. "He is a very powerful looking figure," says Wade Smith, co-owner of C.W. Smith Imported Antiques. "You see the red color of his body," he says, looking over one of Bruijn's photographs. "The fangs. There's a red fiery halo as well."
Hayagriva makes up one of eight warrior protectors of Buddhism. Wrathful gods like this one are traditionally kept in homes and temples of Tibetan Buddhists to protect against evil influences and remind followers to eliminate the passion and evil in their own lives.
This picture of Hayagriva is one of 14 images on display by Bruijn, which is on display at Smith's gallery. Shalu, which means "Small hat" in Tibetan, houses entire rooms decorated with murals that, 20 years ago anyway, had still retained their vibrant color, even after thousands of years.
"It was difficult to get these pictures," Bruijn says. "First, we didn't really have permission and there wasn't any light inside Shalu. "The floor had been dug out, so the pictures were above our heads. We had to build scaffolding to stand on in order to be eye-to-eye with the paintings. Then, all we had was candle light," she recounts, explaining she didn't have flash units. At the time, Bruijn was living with a local family — sleeping on the floor, bearing with the high winds and cool temperatures of the mountainous region.
"The people there wanted us to see these paintings," she says. "This is their heritage. They were happy we were there." One of the most evocative works Bruijn photographed is the Shadakshari Lokeshvara, called the patron saint of Tibet. All Dali Lamas are considered to be incarnations of this deity.
The four-armed figure is pictured atop a lotus blossom, holding prayer beads. His neck and wrists are adorned with gold and red jewels. "If you look at these, it's hard to tell they are photographs," says Smith, who carries Asian art. "Brynn really captured the nature of the murals."
• • •
Born dyslexic, Bruijn finds reading and writing difficult tasks, she says.
"Don't ask me to spell anything," she says. "Really, dyslexia is why I think I'm so creative. I've spent my life figuring problems out that others took for granted." When she was a child, people didn't know how to treat the disorder, says Brynn Hansen, Bruijn's oldest daughter."They didn't really know it was a problem," Hansen says. Teachers and professionals looked at people with dyslexia as lazy or stupid."
Besides issues with dyslexia, one of Bruijn's largest challenges has been one of seeking acceptance from her family. She was born into a comfortable Wisconsin, Presbyterian family, and was always expected to become a member of high society, she says. "My family never considered photography an appropriate career path," she says. "It's one of the reasons I'm so anal in my photography. I'm sure there's a part of me that may still be trying to prove to my mother or whomever that I'm good at this. "If you want to be someone as a photographer, good enough is just not good enough — not if you want to get to the top," she says. The challenges she's overcome make this photographer's work more poignant, says her daughter.
"People don't recognize how difficult it was for my mother to do what she's done," Hansen says. "She started at a time when women were not thought of as being capable of doing whatever they wanted. "My mom has the power to sum up a human emotion in a single frame, that's very difficult to accomplish."
• • •
Bruijn keeps a white silken scarf blessed by the Dali Lama in the bedroom closet of her home. The cloth's nature — its ability to bend and flow with the elements — reminds her of the basic element behind each picture she's snapped. Compassion. Twenty years ago, Brynn Bruijn photographed the heart of Tibetan Buddhist culture, when she shot candle-lit pictures of Shalu.
"These pictures don't belong to me," she says. "They belong to Tibet. I'm only a temporary guardian and someday I want to give these to the people." The images she documented are at the artistic and spiritual root of an entire people, she says.
"That's my purpose," she says, coughing again. "Photograph the essence."
•••
If you go
"Discovering Shalu, Tibetan Images of Enlightenment"
What: An exhibit by Naples photographer Brynn Bruijn.
When: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Wednesday through March 10
Where: C.W. Smith Imported Antiques, 1260 Third St. South, Naples
Admission: Free
Information: 239-213-0749 or cwsmithinc@aol.com
Naplles Illustrated names Brynn one of Naples most interesting Dinner Guests
Freelance photographer Brynn Bruijn worked for national and international magazines in Amsterdam, London, Paris and New York, including National Geographic and Town & Country - shooting subjects from serious to glamorous. She spent four months in Tibet documenting artifacts for the Dalai Lama. Every year, she would do charity work, and through Save the Children, she met Audrey Hepburn.
She dove into photography while living in Saudi Arabia in the early 1970s when she began scuba diving and photographing. In order to get her first assignment to shoot interiors, she said her portfolio was not available and went to all her friends' homes in order to make one. When she moved to Amsterdam, she opened up a studio.
During her career, Bruijn met and cooked with Julia Child (whom she calls the highlight of the famous people she's met). Work on a book about antiques led to introductions to the late Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson. She had lunch in Cuba with Castro's wife and spoke at the Great Hall of the People in China at an international photography symposium. In a life full of twists and turns, she came to Naples to become an interior designer after meeting Kris Kolar, design director with Robb and Stucky in Naples.
"I have a love for anything I don't know about," she says. "You have to have a love for people when you are sitting at 8 p.m. in the middle of a road in another country eating something, and you don't know what you are eating."
Most memorable social gathering:
There was a dinner party held by [Amsterdam's] Princess Christina and the former queen's friends. I was thinking, what a neat thing it was that an average girl from Milwaukee had the privilege to have the experiences I have had. I drank a 1929 Châteaux Latour, probably the greatest wine ever made. It really, really was. I wore a very simple black silk crepe evening dress - very boring - with a strand of pearls and fabulous shoes that hurt my feet all night.
Who do you seek out in social gatherings?
You try to find someone you thought was interesting during cocktails. I don't like open seating dining, because you always sit with people you feel safest with.
What's your ideal guest list?
A flaming liberal first of all. You definitely want someone who is literary. At least two or three gourmands, and a couple of royals or politicians are always fun.
How do you know when it's time to call it a night?
I think you can feel it. It depends on the discussion of the group. If you go past midnight, you have a big hit on your hands