JOSEPHINE BRUYNINGS

Chapter 0. Introduction 'BIANCA'

Sometimes, I don’t know how to deal with certain situations, thoughts, or feelings.

I’m beginning to notice more and more that I don’t actually know where I stand, and writing about it brings me relief.

This is M.A.U.

M.A.U is about you and me, about the connection we share. It is an archive of my photographic work, poetry, and thoughts over the past years as a growing adolescent, as a woman, and as a child. 

It stands for ‘Me And U,’ and I can’t thank anyone more than you. Because you allowed me to learn about people, about feelings, and about growing up, I created this archive.

M.A.U is an ode to love. An ode to humanity and to how unique a single head full of thoughts can truly be.

There she goes, do you see it too?

- J, May 2019

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT 

M.A.U Volume nr.1 : ‘BIANCA’ was born from a moment of bravery—after years of holding onto this book, hesitating to release it into the world, I finally decided to reshape it into fragments, divided into 10 volumes where the past and present weave together. Each chapter is a tapestry of old and new, revealing the subtle connections that tie different moments of my and our life.

This first chapter began with a challenge I set for myself: to step beyond my comfort zone, to ask a complete stranger on a date. When I met Bianca, I knew instinctively that she was the one with whom I wanted to build something meaningful, something pure—a platonic relationship rooted in companionship during my final year as a bachelor student. She was two years younger than me, yet in her I saw a reflection of my younger self. When I met her, she was 20—the very age I had been when I was at the height of creating ‘M.A.U.’, consumed by the words that shaped me. Through Bianca, I witnessed the delicate interplay of time—seeing both the differences and striking similarities between who I had been at 19 and who she was now. Our connection became the first thread woven into this book, intertwining our stories across time.

That year, Bianca and I embarked on countless journeys—not just through the motions of daily life, but through the landscapes that deepened our bond. Every step we took, every conversation we shared, became part of the larger narrative I was weaving—a story where time folded inward, drawing the past nearer to the present through her. Our travels, both literal and symbolic, became layers of meaning within this chapter, grounding it in the tangible while lifting it into something transcendent—a quiet testament to the connections that shape us and the moments that change us.

Our journey together extended beyond the familiar. We traveled to New York to meet her family—a city where her roots ran deep and where her past unfolded before me. Being there, immersed in the pulse of her origin, I found myself tracing the layers of her story, witnessing firsthand the threads of her life that had already begun weaving into ‘BIANCA’. Each moment spent with her family added another dimension to our bond, offering me a glimpse into the very essence of who she was. New York was no longer just a place—it became a mirror for our relationship, a point where the past and present collided beautifully, where our stories intertwined even more deeply into the fabric of this chapter.

- J