GNL Connection

February 2008

Looking at the World through Brynn’s Lens

by Jen Walker

You have a major show coming up at The von Liebig Art Center in March. What will you exhibit? It’s called “Curiouser and Curiouser: Adventures of Photographer Brynn Bruijn” and will consist of some 65 images of 32 countries, detailing the daily activities of people in Africa, China, Europe, Russia and Tibet. If that sounds a bit like Alice in Wonderland, it’s intentional; the idea is to have people look at the ordinary in extraordinary ways.

How did you get started as a photographer on all these great adventures? It really started when my husband Peter and I moved with our two daughters to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Next door were these very cute Swedish biologists who, after many food bribes, took me scuba diving. Without much instruction, I jumped in, but what I saw and eventually photographed in the Red Sea changed my life.

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Your underwater photographs were published in “Red Sea Coral Reefs.” In what other books have your photos appeared? I have photographed for nine other books. My experience as the first American permitted open access to photograph in Cuba, as seen in “Cuba, Five Hundred Years of Images.” Others include “Spectacular Homes of Florida,” “The Royal Progress of William & Mary,” “Titoki Point” by Gordon Collier and “Uzbekistan.”

You’ve also had expositions in Europe. Which were the most impressive? My work was selected by Kodak Netherlands for a show that toured Europe, and later I had a major exposition at the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde the Netherlands, which was featured in the book “Tibetan Art towards a Definition of Style.”

Where did your adventurous life take you after Saudi Arabia? Peter’s transfer to Lebanon was short lived. After four months of Beirut bliss, the civil war broke out, and we spent the next six months under the bed because our apartment was shot at on a regular basis. We finally escaped by taking a taxi through the Palestinian camps, where we were stopped at gunpoint. I was lying on top of our daughters in the back seat while Peter was trying to negotiate our passage with a wild-eyed kid holding an M16.

When you returned to Europe, you became serious about photography. What inspired you? I realized that I could no longer continue to be half a photographer and that I needed to be myopic about what I wanted to do. With my earlier education at the Milwaukee Center of Photography, I was ready to open a studio. I became a regular contributor to numerous European and American magazines, including Town & Country, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Travel & Leisure, and Food & Wine.

How did you meet the Dalai Lama? I met him through my connection with a Dutch foundation and became his photographer whenever he was in town.

Old Friends, Nepal

You spent four rugged months in Tibet. What were you doing there? I was on assignment for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkund, documenting and photographing the lost and buried art treasures. Many had been destroyed or greatly damaged by the Chinese in 1959. Navigating the muddy and rocky roads was often impossible. However, we succeeded, and the Shalu Monastery part of our trip resulted in my photographs that became a UNESCO Cultural Project of the Decade.

Are you at risk if you go to China now? No, happily that has changed. I was invited in 1992 to represent the Netherlands at the International Film Festival in Beijing, and I spoke in the Great Hall. As a thank you, they gave me a culinary tour through northern China, which was quite a gift.

You’ve traveled the world—what other adventures and assignments have you had? Name a place and I have surely been there—Kashmir for the saffron fields, Morocco for the foods of that country, the Amazon down to the Golden Triangle, New Zealand for their gardens, the summer palace of the Family Rothschild and an exhausting eight weeks around the world. In Africa I spent many hot weeks on assignment for Save the Children. I learned to make Indonesian “rice taffel” and lived in the famous mud huts of Mali. For my explorations in the Red Sea and for Shalu in Tibet, I was named a Fellow of the New York Explorer’s Club.

Base Camp, Mount Everest

Are these photos in your upcoming show? Many of them are, but not the Shalu collection, which is for sale at C.W. Smith on Third Street in Naples and in Minnesota.

You have a daughter living in Europe who was very sick earlier this year. How is she? She is doing so much better. As many of my classmates know, our younger daughter Trieneke is a cancer survivor and lives in Holland with her Dutch husband and six-year-old son Dax. Older daughter Brynneke is interested in the Dutch Warmblood horses used for dressage. She is married and lives with her husband and daughter on their farm in Mount Horub, Wisconsin.

Now you are in Naples. Are you retired from photography? Absolutely not. This is my life’s work. Sometimes I kiddingly say that I am the most “well-unknown” photographer in Naples. I do commercial work, some of which won two Pinnacle awards for best advertising in Naples. I’m also doing portraits again. I just have to keep reinventing myself.

What led you to GNL? I had been looking for a photographic project that might make a difference to someone. Then I met Martha Forbes (Class X), whose enthusiasm for the program was infectious. We both agreed that through my participation in GNL, I might find such a project.

You’ve been going out to Immokalee at odd times to photograph. Why are you doing that? This project chose me! If they’re lucky, photographers might find a “passion project,” which ends up having a profound effect on the people who see it. Immokalee offers a unique opportunity to document a small town at the crossroads of big change. Realizing this, I have gone out there on weekends, nights and very early mornings to shoot the fieldworkers leaving on the buses. Three of these photographs will be in the von Liebig show.

“Bless This House,” Immokalee

Documenting Immokalee before it changes dramatically sounds like a major undertaking. Can you do it? It is very ambitious, and I really need to partner with a supportive organization, enabling me to work full time, because I don’t think time is on our side. Immokalee embodies so many issues which face our country: poverty, guest workers, low-income housing, children’s health and education. How we help this community may very well be a measuring stick for future generations.

Editor’s notes: Brynn’s proposal is to document Immokalee so that the viewer can see firsthand the issues which we can no longer ignore. For further information, contact her at Brynnphotographer@embarqmail.com

The von Liebig Center show is sponsored by Saudi Aramco World magazine and M&I Bank. The creative presentation was curated by the Center’s assistant director, Ginamarie Pugliese.

Photos for this article were contributed by Brynn Bruijn. “Bless this House” will appear in the von Liebig show.