“ Indeed, a fine balance of spirit with matter can only concur when the artist has so thoroughly submerged himself in the study of the unity of nature as to truly become once more a part of nature a part of the very earth, thus to view the inner surfaces and the life elements. “   Isamu Noguchi (1927)

B I O G R A P H Y

Bruna Stude was born on the shores of the Dalmatian Coast, she graduated from the Law University in Split, Croatia. After working for years as a newspaper and radio reporter, she left Croatia in 1987 to pursue a life at sea. Forsaking the comfort of her native environs and language, Bruna found that photography gave her a new identity as a participant in the life and rhythms of the sea. She also found in photography the techniques to express her own creative sense and impulses.  

As a freelance artist and stock photographer for Omni Photo Communications - New York, Bruna traveled the world as a boat crew over many years, which enabled her to pursue her love for water and explore the world beneath the surface. Over the years, she circumnavigated the globe several times, pausing sometimes for months in remote areas, accessible only by water. Those voyages enabled her to explore the ocean as a subject with much appreciation and understanding.   In 2002, she found her home on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, where the songs of whales fill the ocean in winter. Selected PUblications:

Sea Frontiers, Yachting, Cruising World, Odyssey Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Curio, etc.; as well as in books published by Harcourt Brace & Co., Globe Fearon/Pearson, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Publishing,  Education, Prentice Hall, America 24/7, Hawaii 24/7, Nikon Net.

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

HONOLU ADVERTISER , November 21, 2007                                    (view article)

Through the lens of Bruna Stude

By Lesa Griffith

Twenty years ago, Bruna Stude left her native Croatia for a life crewing on yachts. A law school graduate and a newspaper reporter, in a world where Croatian wasn't the first language, she turned to photography to express herself.

Cruising around the seas to remote areas, she has photographed sharks off Burma and fishermen in Panama. Now the Kaua'i resident has collected some of her most striking images in the self-published book "In-Sight," which will be on bookshelves next month.

Her work focuses on the ocean and the things in it. Growing up in the city of Split, on the Adriatic Sea, water has always been a part of Stude's life. She first went to Kaua'i to photograph whales, and she found a place to settle.

"The waters were filled with whale song. Kaua'i is like a cross between living on the ocean and on land," said Stude. Petite and trim as a gymnast, her makeup-free, angular face brings to mind a young Georgia O'Keeffe.

"In-Sight" includes images from her series on 'opihi. The limpet caught her eye because of its similarity to the Adriatic's prilipak, which people also eat.

"I took a closer look and discovered what a wonderful subject 'opihi could be," Stude said. The extreme closeup, black-and-white studies of 'opihi reveal a ridged surface as elegant and element-eroded as columns of the Parthenon.

While in Indonesia five years ago, Stude met the owner of the One Big Truth Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif. He liked her work and showed it in the gallery.

"I was encouraged by it," Stude said.

Then last year, her work was accepted for the juried "The Art of Photography Show" at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery in San Diego. "That was the moment I felt photography might be more than my pet project," she said. She also was included in this year's "Artists of Hawaii" show at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and she has long contributed images to the stock-photo agency Omni Photo Communications.

She originally put the photographs included in "In-Sight" together as a portfolio. People who saw it encouraged her to publish it as a book.

Stude pointed to "Two Feet Under," a wavering shot from under water of Sale Alorkeil, an Indonesian fisherman, with his legs dangling over his canoe.

"It illustrates how my life was," she said. "I made images when I could. The owner (of the boat) loved diving. For something like 'Two Feet Under' — it's not just a snapshot."

For Stude, it can take years of going to a place to get that exact moment when light, subject and water conditions are just right. In this case, the fisherman paddled his canoe away from the harbor on Komodo Island. And it's one of the few times, Stude said, that everything aligned and almost every frame was perfect.

"I waited so long," she said. "There are so many elements you have to take care of in the water."

Now she'd like to turn her talents to surf photography. "But I have so much to learn," she said. "I have to improve my surfing first."

Millard Sheets Art Canter, Pomona, California, September 7- 30 ,2007

Contemporary Landscapes

Photographic works by
Joyce Campbell, Soo Kim, Frank Kunert, Han Nguyen,   Bruna Stude, William A  Long, Kimi Kolba, Nicole Belle, Noga Elhasid & Halit Mandelblit.
+installation by Shinichi Ono

Curator : Tal Yizrael

The term “Landscape” was introduced to English language and awareness with the Dutch landscape paintings of the sixteenth century. Therefore, since its very beginning “landscape” has expressed an experience of space that includes the artist’s gaze.

It was not a main subject in visual art, however, until the seventeenth century. To that point it had been applied nearly exclusively as the background to figures, illustrations or events.

Photography at its infancy was meant to copy reality as a form of reporting and recording. Often landscape photography, in other than its role as exhibiting fascinations with and appreciations of nature, was a form of proof of the existence of a place. This was especially true if it documented a remote location to which the average viewer had limited or no access.

Photographs from remote locations are frequently testaments to the adventurism of the photographer and add a “halo of heroism” to the action of taking the picture. In this way not only the final product, namely the photograph, is glorified but also the photographer’s courage. Just sharing the photographs of one’s journey provides an opportunity to tell unusual or exceptional stories.

The works in this exhibition retain the element of fascination with the landscape, but this initial form of attraction is challenged and calls for a penetrating reading of each. The works playfully shift between mindscapes and landscapes.

The photographers in this exhibition take the viewer on their journeys – journeys of metaphoric adventurous minds – while the very action of examining the photographs turns into an adventure unto itself.

Artists panel
September 9 ,2007, 7:00pm
September 19,2007, 8:30 pm
Guided tours:
Thursdays at 5:00pm

PRESS RELEASE, Septembeer 15, 2007

Kaua‘i, Hawaii, November 15, 2007 – Kaua‘i photographer Bruna Stude’s IN-SIGHT is a little black art book full of gorgeous ocean imagery, and it comes to bookstores at the end of November.

The author, who spent most of her life working and living at sea, summarizes the ocean world with just a few paragraphs in her photography book, allowing the reader to follow her story through the imagery via intriguing image titles and creative groupings. In sum, the book truly tells a story about Stude’s journey and the environs she loves.

“When I photograph in the ocean, I look to find and capture the magnificence of that which is common and universal to it,” Stude explains. “By illuminating the extraordinary, I try to create awareness and inspire reverence.”

Stude’s recent art showings include “Contemporary Landscapes” at the Millard Sheets Center of the Arts in Pomona, California, “Art Kaua‘i 2007” by the Kaua‘i Society of Artists in Lihue, and Artists of Hawaii 2007 at the Honolulu Academy of Art in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is currently working on her upcoming solo exhibition at The Kaua‘i Museum for summer 2008.

Acclaim for the artist:

“Bruna Stude invites us to a sublime journey under water, which is her everyday world – a place where one dimension is lost and another one is gained. She creates light-drawings using her camera, almost on location photograms. The water, the light, and the marine inhabitants and visitors are her brushes and palette. The contour lines created by these elements function as membranes, which allow our gaze to shift among the elements in her photographs.”

– Tal Yizrael, Photography Coordinator, Millard Sheets Center For The Arts, Pomona, California

“Bruna chooses creatures who have no voice, who are often misunderstood and forgotten because they are merely beautiful but silent. Bruna speaks for the creatures who can’t, and by listening to her and seeing them as she sees them, I’m humbled by the capacity we humans have to think more meaningful thoughts, create a better existence for us to live and build a life, and respect this world and all who share it.”

–  L.J.C. Shimoda, artist and gallery director of The Kaua‘i Museum

Publisher information:

IN-SIGHT is distributed by Booklines Hawaii, a division of The Islander Group. For

more information, see www.booklineshawaii.com or call 1-877-828-4852.

The 108-page book is printed in debossed soft cover. The pages are hand-sewn, with a debossed belly band made from natural craft paper. A hard-cover, limited edition of the book, numbered and signed, is available at www.brunastude.com.

Author contact information:

Bruna Stude

brunastude.com

808-652-0712

IN - SIGHT   June   2007    

To “See” is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “…to get knowledge or impression through use of the eyes…”.  To “look” is defined only as “…to direct one’s eyes…”.  When we are able to really “see”, we find the opportunity for this knowledge, for awareness and understanding.  That is very different from merely “looking”, which leaves a condition of (emotional) distance or detachment. 

“Seeing” provides insight.   Bruna Stude is a person who is always in a state of profound “seeing”.  As with all truly important artists, her art helps her to “see”, and gives insight.  As a person and an artist, she does not remain apart from her life and her subjects; but rather she actively becomes a part of what is around her.  She seeks to eliminate distance, both physically and emotionally, and succeeds in removing detachment as well.   This artist becomes at home with her subjects, creating a familiarity that is mutual and rare.  It is an artistic accomplishment  not merely of technique (although hers is clearly considerable), but more importantly of a personal commitment to “insight”. In presenting her images, Bruna Stude invites us to join in the relationships she has created in the pursuit of her art.  

This elimination of distance which drives her approach provides the basis of the dramatic and appropriate character of her images.  The knowledge she seeks results from capturing intimate details of both physical form and of moments I space and time. The focus on this detail, on the intimacy that provides, extends from the making of the printing and cropping of the final artwork in the studio.  It is the parts, the pieces, the elements of individual form and geometry that matter most.

To understand Bruna Stude’s work, and to gain real insight and pleasure from her images, it is important to understand this principle.  It allows her to explore and communicate the true essence of what is beautiful and valuable in the world she finds around her. Whether or not it is found underwater is not of primary importance or of sole interest to her. 

Bruna’s artistry comes in no small measure from her willingness to focus her commitment and develop her artistic skills so as to provide specific and powerful connections to the world around us, to provide “insight”.  

Jeff Sulkin Sulkin / Secant Gallery

Bergamot Station Art Center

Santa Monica, California