Centraal Photography: Hans Wilschut, Texts: Edo Dijksterhuis, Wilfried de Jong

Centraal is a long-term photographic study by Hans Wilschut of the transformation of Rotterdam Central Station and its surrounding square. For eight years, from 2006 to 2014, Wilschut photographed the area from the twelfth floor of the Manhattan Hotel, following the demolition of the former station, the temporary in-between phase and the gradual rise of the new station building.

The book shows the city as a place of constant change. Construction sites, temporary structures, flows of travellers, empty moments and sudden shifts in light together form a precise visual record of one of Rotterdam’s most defining urban transformations. Rather than presenting the station only as architecture, Wilschut reveals it as a living public space, shaped by movement, waiting, work and anticipation.

Centraal is both an artist’s book and a document of a city rebuilding itself in real time. It captures a period that has already disappeared, yet still feels close enough to remember.

Hardcover / 250 × 328 mm / 152 pages / Dutch, possibly Dutch + English / full colour / ISBN 9789490608910/ Trichis Publishers/ Photography: Hans Wilschut / Texts: Edo Dijksterhuis, Wilfried de Jong / Design: Zee, Laurens van der Pol