Rotterdam is perhaps the most ethnically and culturally diverse city in the Netherlands, which also makes it an ever-changing city, a place under constant construction. Photographer Otto Snoek was born and raised in Rotterdam, and has a certain fondness for the both city’s boundless ambition and its rougher edges. In this photobook, pictures from the late 1980s and early 1990s narrate the emergence of a new skyline at breakneck speed, documenting the city’s reconstruction through stark views of demolition sites, construction pits, and endless cranes. Snoek prefers the fringes: mountains of sand, ruins of demolished buildings, and muddy sites lined with grim fences.

Rotterdam is perhaps the most ethnically and culturally diverse city in the Netherlands, which also makes it an ever-changing city, a place under constant construction. Photographer Otto Snoek was born and raised in Rotterdam, and has a certain fondness for the both city’s boundless ambition and its rougher edges. In this photobook, pictures from the late 1980s and early 1990s narrate the emergence of a new skyline at breakneck speed, documenting the city’s reconstruction through stark views of demolition sites, construction pits, and endless cranes. Snoek prefers the fringes: mountains of sand, ruins of demolished buildings, and muddy sites lined with grim fences.