He is now the institution of Amsterdam and probably the most famous early photographer of the city, but in his time Jacob Olie was actually a carpenter and photography (than a completely new, still relatively rough novelty) was his hobby.Which means he toyed with it passionately trough his whole life, experimented with various techniques and this was who he really was - a photographer of Amsterdam, the way it was during his lifetime. Obviously he recognised that the city is rapidly changing right before his eyes and he wanted to preserve some of the images for the posterity - nowhere in a million years he could have guessed that long after his death, he will be celebrated for this hobby and that there will grow a whole industry of books, posters, postcards and memorabilia based on his photographs.
I was mesmerised with his photographs from the very first moment - for me they were a personification of time travel - and even had a beautiful poster from some exhibition, made from his enlarged photograph. The Amsterdam City Archives owns approximately 5,000 photographs that he originally made on glass plates. I think its just amazing that we have his beautiful work saved and on top of it that in his lifetime photography was not even so well known yet - he will become celebrated posthumously.
I have stumbled completely accidentally on the fact that his birth house still exist and made a point of taking a walk there. It is a very interesting area called The Western Islands (De Westelijke Eilanden) which apparently used to be warehouses and shipyards close to the busy port, only recently re-constructed into a very chic residential areas. It looks absolutely lovely and it feels as the time had completely stopped there - walking there in silence, one hears only birds chirping and its a soothing pleasure to take a walk trough small streets and countless bridges, far away from the city bustle and the noise. And here I found the house where Jacob Olie was born and lived - lovely little street with ancient houses overlooking the harbour.
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