ROTTERDAM

This publication is the result of a collaboration between Witte de With and the Rotterdam born and bred photographer Otto Snoek (1966). Snoek’s photographs are especially striking for their powerful emotional impact. For Witte de With, the challenge in the collaboration with Snoek has above all been one of content – an artist’s practice is presented in a form other than an exhibition. For this publication Otto Snoek made a new series of photos, adding other recent (since 2006), as yet unpublished work from his long-term photo essay “Hometown” (since 1997). Central in the new works in the publication is the ‘mix’ of the 174 cultures, 50% ‘foreigners’ and 50% ‘indigenous’ citizens coexisting in Rotterdam – whether or not relating to each other. More than other cities Rotterdam is heterogeneous in its composition, elusive, restless, full of repressed tension but still hopeful. Snoek records processes and transitions, like an all-seeing eye and he has an exceptional gift for seizing the right moment. Some images will vanish, while other, newer images will come into being, thus safeguarding his images against any easy assumptions or a priori conclusions.