eclectic imaging
More Amsterdam!
Posted by MadScientist (Düsseldorf, Germany) on 5 November 2009 in Cityscape & Urban.
I think this was somewhere on Kerkstraat, if memory serves correctly. Tidy buildings, lots of young people, sitting on staircases, in doorways, chatting. First lights were switched on and people prepared for their evening activities.
Looking at these buildings, you soon notice that not two of them look identical, though the facades usually have a very simple structure. The facades are almost completely resolved into windows, the more the better: these houses are pretty deep and light was a precious source. But you would further need the construction date of a house to decide if its owner was a rich man, as Amsterdam was occasionally levying taxes on the width of a building. The only true decorations are the portals and gables: the first representing the connection to the outside world, the latter usually having a lot of volutes which were individually designed. The hooks at the end of the prolonged truss joists are still used for hauling goods into the rooms, as the narrow staircases are not suitable for moving bulky things into the upper storeys.
Download my coffee-table book of selected postings here. Enjoy!
Canon EOS 40D
1/60 second
F/4.5
ISO 1600
22 mm