Photo book Views of Amsterdam

Project name: Views of Amsterdam
Status: Completed. Book available

Amsterdam is an old city. It started its life as a tiny fisherman's village along the shores of the then still untamed river Amstel. Over time a dam and dikes were erected to protect the village and its hinterland. In the early 13th century, the village was awarded city rights. By that time, the village must already have been important enough for the local lords to grant such rights.

The city kept growing and expanding but it wasn't until the Age of Exploration that Amsterdam got an enormous boost. The discovery and exploration of the Americas and the subsequent discovery and exploration of the Far East lead to the formation of trade organizations and companies, the most important of which was the VOC, the Dutch East India Company. The influx of money through the trade in spices, tea, sugar, slaves and other commodities, increased the importance of Amsterdam as the de facto capital of Holland. The Golden Age of Holland, as the 16th and 17th century are called, not only saw Amsterdam bloom as the artistic centre of Western Europe but also as the technological, military and political centre. Amsterdam's historic city centre still shows clearly this power and wealth.

After a few centuries of stagnation, Amsterdam is now once again an energetic, vibrant city. Much has changed over those centuries but much has remained the same, most obviously the city's old centre, it's importance as the capital of Holland and as a hotbed for art and cultural expressions.

Amsterdam is for many visitors the first and often only glimpse of Holland. In this book I want to show some other glimpses of Amsterdam that most visitors hardly ever see: the daily life of the common man and woman. I hope that Views of Amsterdam will persuade you to come to Amsterdam, stay for some time and help you explore the city outside the beaten roads of the tourist areas.

Project progress
The idea for this project came from rummaging through my old photos. I ran into a large number of photos of Amsterdam that, after some consideration, seemed interesting enough to show to a larger audience. Additionally, I wanted to show a less common view of Amsterdam, weary of the widely abundant touristy shots. Amsterdam is more than canals, tulips and old houses.

This project suffered from a lack of immediately available digital photos. Most photos I selected were shot on film and, though they were scanned previously, were often not readily usable. Retrieving, (re)scanning and preparing the photos took an immense amount of time. Laying out the book, finding an arrangement that would work, and getting the book ready for a proof print also took a lot of time. All in all it took a good 18 months, with long interruptions due to unrelated activities, before the book was available for sale.

Main lesson from this project is that having all the digital files and photos ready, in the right size, with the right resolution, properly formatted, is important for a smooth work flow. Having to retrieve old film negatives, (re)scanning them and preparing them in an image editing program, consumes a lot of time and increases the chances of unavoidable but inconvenient interruptions and delays.

Views of Amsterdam


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