B is a long term resident of Amsterdam. From what I could gather he went to school there, worked there until his retirement and nowadays takes time every day to make a round of the city. He lives in Amsterdam North, coming across by ferry every day, just to see what's happening and who's doing what, so I expect he's well and truly part of the city landscape by now. Indeed, I spotted him again later in the afternoon wandering around a different part of the city altogether.
I met him near the western tram station. I'm not sure what attracted me to him, besides the feeling that he was distinctly different to the commuters and tourists who were populating the station square that afternoon.
B is a photographer himself, and was quite active with his art in times long past. During our fairly long chat, he told me of his early days at the Natural Science Laboratory where he worked, where he and his colleagues would spend time during their lunch breaks taking pictures, developing and printing them in a makeshift darkroom under one of the staircases in the building in which he worked. At the time he was shooting with a Hasselblad 6x6 camera, of which he was very proud. In recent years though he has given up most of his photography and now spends his time taking pictures with a Lumix compact camera.
He was rather reluctant to divulge any personal information, after a little prodding he told me that his initials were BB, to which I replied "Oh, like B... B..." (from the totally well-known Dutch children's song) to which he replied, "Eh, yes... that's how they teased me years ago at school...".
OK, slightly awkward moment here...
Once again I've made a series of shots, some with more of Amsterdam Central Station in the background, some more closely cropped. This series was for me also an attempt to find a good balance between cropping and leaving more space around my subject, as well as studying various expressions. The other photos can be found in a different set.
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A larger version of this photo can be seen on my Flickr profile by clicking the image found there. See also my previous entries on the 100 Strangers Project.
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