Rotterdam, the Netherlands, a major port city in the Dutch province of South Holland, is the city where I was born and lived for the first decade of my life. Our very small, simple terraced house was at a stone’s throw distance from the hospital where my father worked as a surgeon. But more importantly we lived very close to “De Kuip”, stadium Feijenoord, home of the very best Dutch soccer club Feyenoord. Honesty commands that not everybody is in agreement here! My father, in his spare time, was the official doctor for the club and that came with some perks such as regularly attending soccer matches. Thus, through the eyes of a child, Rotterdam was the very best place to be! Adult eyes looked at it without any particular emotion - for them it was a sober, dull, unimaginative place.
After my family moved to the suburbs, I was still very much connected to the city: accompanying my father to the hospital to “help”; dance lessons with my older brother; shopping; attending concerts and so forth. It was still not a beautiful city and continually searching for a new identity after it was almost completely destroyed after the Rotterdam Blitz during the Second World War.
During my law school days in Utrecht (a beautiful old city in the middle of the Netherlands) Rotterdam was just a city I passed through by train or car on my bi-weekly visits home. Not much had changed.
But then, after I got my law degree from Utrecht en my Master’s degree in the United States, Rotterdam and I became much better acquainted as I worked there for a good part of my third decade at a large law firm. Where, before, I really didn’t think much of the city and considered it mostly a dreary place, I actually developed a true liking for the place. Much was changing and the architecture became more modern but not just modern, it was innovative with what is sometimes called “risk-taking” designs. It was an eclectic city with old buildings, the old harbour in the middle of the city, cozy little neigborhoods with lots of character, mingled with the strikingly bold modern architecture.
In the beginning of my fourth decade I moved to the United States. But I have remained loyal to my city of birth and without exception always visit it during my annual visits home. And although much remained the same (my favorite department stores and certain restaurants amongst others) more and more changed. The statement “I don’t recognize you anymore”! certainly applied but not in the negative way it is often thought of. No, it is uttered with wonder, respect, admiration and intrigue.
I never really had a chance to walk the city and photograph it to my heart’s content. I was planning to start that project this year. Obviously a visit to the Netherlands is not possible this Pandemic year.
Here is the very beginning of a collection of photos about Rotterdam. Some of them were taken many years ago before I became a photographer.
PS Dutch people like their storms and clouds!
