Arie Bruinsma

The bookcase

Pick a shelf.
Find a story.

Every shelf has its own pace. Some stories belong in more than one place.

Before you read onPhotography begins with what is there. The stories sometimes keep looking.
Twelve moments from the Allegorical Parade in Sint Nyk, with historical floats and performers

The Time Machine

For a few hours, the Allegorical Parade turns Sint Nyk into a village where history is allowed to become real.

Step into the time machine
Sheriff lying in the grass, with Donna behind him

From Bijke to Sheriff

Every dog left something behind. Some dreams simply walked beside me years later.

Walk with me
A colourful allegorical float passes through Sint Nyk

The buzz in Sint Nyk

An entire village is counting down to the moment the workshop doors open.

Feel the buzz
The strength of the ordinary, a portrait from RED

The strength of the ordinary

The portrait in which everything I seek in photography comes together.

Look once more
An older couple walking together along a curving road through the Frisian countryside at sunset

Corners of the world

A world without corners may be harder to search, but it is lovelier to travel around together.

Walk along for a while
A restored red DAF 46 in evening sunlight outside a Frisian workshop

The DAF that brought us together

Some cars take you from A to B. My DAF brought me to Cynthia.

Come along for the ride
A large house spider on the paving of a petrol station

The Giant with Stage Fright

The spider does not change. You do.

Look a little longer
Seven roll containers in a circle while two colleagues drink tea

The Rotterdam Circle

Otherwise they cannot arrive in Rotterdam.

Follow the circle
A gospel singer sings with lived conviction, surrounded by a small choir

Antiblues

This is what happened to me, and I am still singing.

Keep listening
Three colleagues reacting differently to music in a workplace canteen

Bloody Racket

You do not have to like it to recognise the skill.

Listen a little closer
A Fraga comic page about negative stock

Why Fraga Exists

Some incidents do not need a long story. They do deserve a second look.

Come along for the ride
An enormous transport ship carrying stacked inland-vessel hulls

How?

As long as you can still ask how something works, the world is far from finished.

Keep asking
A bowl of vivid green matcha beside an ordinary cup of coffee

Matcha Mania, Part Two

Matcha is good for everything. The sense of humour still needs a little work.

When does it start working?
A bowl of vivid green matcha beside an ordinary cup of coffee

Matcha Mania

Perhaps the secret is not the green colour, but the green light you give yourself.

Keep whisking slowly
A student book parcel at the front of a large distribution centre

Two Hundred Thousand New School Years

Every parcel that leaves the conveyor is meant for one student.

Take a step back
A silent corn maze at dusk with an abandoned bench

The Corn Maze

You are not lost here. You have been found.

Take the narrow path
An open circle during an attentive evening conversation

An Evening of Faith

Room for faith, doubt, hope and stories you do not share with just anyone.

Join the circle
Instructions jump from page 42 to 45 and leave one red brick behind

The Lego Instruction-Book Maker and the Missing Page

One missing page is enough to derail an entire Saturday afternoon.

Find page 43
A simple screen against a Frisian landscape with a rainbow

The Screen

Technology may organise, calculate and act. The meaning remains mine.

Read the story
A red Lego brick waits on the floor of a book warehouse

What a Day. What Weather.

Fortunately, no Lego bricks on the floor.

Read the story
A cloudburst temporarily floods a street in Makkum

The Cloudburst over Makkum

The day the sky briefly forgot it was supposed to stay above us.

Read the story
Two respectful ways of meeting a person with a camera

Kicking the Door In or Holding It Open

He catches the shock. I wait for trust.

Come closer
A small fan blows through an open book while a cup of coffee, a message and a hand drift out of the story

The Book Fan

For people who get overheated by thick novels.

Read story
A crooked tower at a crossroads of winding paths

The Wandering Tower

You never find it twice in the same place.

Enter Tower V
An old tower appearing behind a traveller

The Tower of Vanished Dreams

He only had to forget the dream.

Enter Tower IV
A low stone tower beside still water in the morning mist

The Tower of Silence

What is not said here may remain.

Enter Tower III
A crooked tower with unexpected windows and a great magnifying glass

The Tower of Wonder

Whoever enters here does not have to understand anything.

Enter Tower II
The towers of Sursirai and their visitors

The Towers of Sursirai

Eight towers have been found. The landscape appears to be expecting eleven.

Visit the City of Towers
A long queue outside eclipsbrillen.nl

The eclipse of Sursirai

Nobody sells the darkness. Nobody creates a shortage of sunlight.

Read story
Kwartsoog draws a winding road from DenkDorp to Dwaalstad

The road to Dwaalstad

Anyone who finds Dwaalstad has not searched properly.

Read sequel
Bram the duck guards the Send button

The Duck with a Response — the sequel

Meta AI can do a great deal. Pressing Send all by itself was still a problem.

Read sequel
Bram the duck sits at a keyboard

The Duck with a Response

A duck capable of responding was not exactly on the technical roadmap.

Read story
A visitor with coffee wanders through a warm house filled with open doors

We Did Not Intervene

The statistics probably call it user behaviour. I call it wandering.

Read story
A busy summer market by the water in Langweer

Langweer is becoming a hotspot

A little Ibiza suits Langweer surprisingly well.

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A horse gently reaches for a hand

The ten-second story

The story is rarely in the click. It lives around it.

Read story
A maker writes down a thought while a Frisian road bends away outside

Why I Use AI

I can put down a thought while it is still warm.

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A dark green luxury car parked modestly among ordinary cars in Friesland

My Ghost

Officially, I own a Suzuki SX4 1.6 4WD. But that is just administration.

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A Frisian maker with two subscription cards, an empty creative fuel gauge and a banana

Dear Sam, we need to talk about my credits again

I asked for credits. I received a second subscription.

Read the open letter
A Frisian maker works on stories and a website, with a camera, notebook and coffee within reach

Just Let That Frisian Keep Going

It is not Codex that has to wait. The stories have to wait.

Read the open letter
A green Hallig in the Wadden Sea, between land and water

Süderoog

Land when it can. Sea when it must.

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A cardboard box turns into a banana in a book warehouse

The box that became a banana

The true origin of negative stock.

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A small wormhole between pallets in a book warehouse

Just another loophole

Minus 37 books. At that point logistics becomes theoretical physics.

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A decorated internet doorway opens onto the Frisian village of Sursirai

From Hyves to Sursirai

Hyves gave us a front door. Can we build a village behind it again?

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Quartereye draws a winding road through Thinktown beside a trading octopus and a brass boredom mechanism

Thinktown

There is no straight ahead here. Fortunately.

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A photographer steps away from a winding path at sunrise to look at the Frisian landscape differently

Zig Zag

Sometimes you have to take a step sideways to see what remains invisible from the beaten path.

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Mysterious meters and machines in a meeting room overlooking Friesland

The Story Nobody Understands

Nobody knew what had happened. Everyone was pleased with the outcome.

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A picnic table in a tidy garden with a yellow covered Pak een Bak trailer

Grab a Trailer

You take things away and get peace in return.

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Two cups of coffee on a wooden kitchen table; one is set down for another person

The Little Things

About small gestures that barely stand out, until you need them yourself.

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Retro poster for Sendy, with books, EAN codes and Wendy beside a delivery van

How I Got from Sendy to Wendy

A Friday detour past a packing slip, two EAN codes and melktertjies.

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Freddy Is Thinking…

The result is not guaranteed to be meaningful, but it is usually surprising.

Read interlude

WHO dunnit?

Some conversations begin seriously. This one derailed at the first turning.

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Fictional Netflix poster for SOFIA

SOFIA Finds You

Some stories begin with a serious subject. This was not one of them.

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Bram the duck and a mouse at a sunny Frisian worktable

A Sunday Afternoon Well Spent

Sometimes a good conversation is enough.

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Bram supervising a British-looking gathering beside H11

How Horsewei Became Britannia

Not through an invasion, but through coffee and an irrassociation module.

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A car towing an impossibly tall stack of schoolbooks near Makkum

Humans first

The illustration is not the achievement. The people are.

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Close enough to keep looking

Close enough to keep looking

A face does not need to be explained. Sometimes you only need to come close enough.

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What people think they know about red hair

What people think they know about red hair

RED is about a visible trait that attracts many assumptions, jokes and prejudices.

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One hundred and eleven faces, no answer

One hundred and eleven faces, no answer

What makes a Frisian a Frisian? After 111 portraits the answer became more human.

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The car, the person and what happens between them

The car, the person and what happens between them

A car is rarely only transport. Sometimes it is a workplace, a shelter, or a portrait.

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