frederiksplein, 19-08-2008, 16:56

This photo-montage is the style of photography I really like: it captures the spontaneity of a moment of childhood.
I also like the fact that it's totally unexpected - one wonders what they are doing rolling a giant foam ball with their bike helmets on.
And it brings us back to kids' imagination.

photo by Peter Cleutjens -Amsterdam weekly.

crew girl

I was watching kids playing baseball, when this crew girl turned her back to me.

dag Nintje

We finished our tour of the museum by decorating some muffins, in honour of Dick Bruna who turned 81yo on Saturday (see the same bold colours of the tables?).

Nintje is on tv

their imaginary friend

Imagination in kids is important. Dick Bruna, the creator of Nintje, understood it and made it a worldwide success.
"I hope that the child's imagination is stimulated to see things in their simplest form", he said.

I visited Nintje museum in Bruna's hometown of Utrecht last Saturday and saw a place geared towards children's imagination.
It all started in 1955 with the name Nintje which was called after a toddler pronunciation of the word rabbit in Dutch, konijn.
Since then, Dick Bruna has always been in pursuit of simpler forms & colours (black outlines, no perspective, bold colours - "sometimes brown for the bear") and modest adventures, all contributing to develop the imagination.

The kids had a good time obviously, playing hide-and-seek in the colourful labyrinth, pretending sleeping and eating in Nintje's house, looking inside a giant cylinder or watching the cartoons on TV in Japanese "because I like it" said my 4 yo son when I wanted to set up the English language for him.
Even the shop, with its four coloured chairs, was yet another pretext for playing.


For older visitors, the exhibition also includes a video about a late 40s' trip to Paris, as well as Bruna's other works, like the covers of popular detective books and his designs for the French Inspector Maigret detective series by Georges Simenon.

destination moon

Looks like they're taking part in the journey to the moon with Professor Calculus and co.

about a bra

A big laugh due to an undone bra.

(photo from the sartorialist)

that first day of school

Is the day when you have butterflies in your stomach: new friends, new teacher, new class, new school sometimes...you're stumbling into the unknown.
Who knows what these two kids are thinking.

hungry why wait

This photo looks just like it is when kids get hungry.

(photo by Margarita Dittborn Valle)

lonely bikes

Why do I have the feeling that these two bikes have been abadonned by their little owners?
Maybe because that's what kids do: they leave their belongings just like that without thinking that they might feel a bit lonely.

first photo by Delphine Chanet
second photo by Daniel K. Gebhart via flakphoto

look at me

This cutie was the center of everyone's attention.
With her cap and Vans Checkerboard Classics she surely rocks!

next shift

Have you ever seen a giraffe on an escalator? And a Barbie waiting for the train?
I love this hp ad for it looks almost real. And the soundstrack works perfectly too.

happy face

Three Dutch young kids aged 6 to 8 just rang at my door, asking for empty plastic bottles for recycling. I gave them all the bottles I had, that is about 20 : they were thrilled!
When I asked them how much they thought they would get out of their collection, one of them said "Oh, a hundred!".

(photo: Sarasota, FL_Brandon Stone via flakphoto)

the cat and the mouse

is a kids' clothing shop in Bruxelles, with a selection of the best Belgium designers.
Highly recommended!

here for the details.

on the roof

Kids seem to love standing on a roof. Maybe because they think they're out of reach and know they shouldn't be allowed there.