alboe's photos

After so many years of not having been here, I had almost forgotten about the very prominent scent - or rather smell - of the nearby oil-refinery. It certainly did kick-start the walk down memory lane, giving it a more positive note.

I'v passed this place uncountable times, when I lived in Amsterdam. Only now I noticed the layers of old and new, the roof veranda's, the variety. It made me want to explore every single building, to explore the little city in itself as it were. (The latter arguably came from the way in which cities and towns are drawn in Daedalic games like Silence and Doomsday)

I loved how even light and shadow played along in this almost exclusively rectangular arrangement of buildings.

Thanks NDSM inhabitants. This scene made me laugh.

The gentrification of the NDSM wharf site has made for a cleaner, more "professional" look, which attracted business consisting of hotels, restaurants, co-working spaces etc. On the other hand it has lost quite a bit of it's original character. One can still feel the creativity that is the base for the whole site, but it seems to slowly fade away, as it makes place to cleanliness and order, business and capitalism. Less and less stories to be read, less and less to be explored. The original artist and creative heads appear to be confined to the renovated ramp. What I wrote above is solely based on how the place felt to me after visiting it for the first time in years. Please do not take my word for it. Go there yourself and explore open-minded and as unbiased as possible.