November Water
by Pieter · 18 June 2026 · Biography & Memoir
Pieter describes how the Maas smells in July and November. In November you smell what's under the fuel — something older than the city. The water looks like it's keeping something. He has 60 November photos and is still looking for the one.
The Maas in July smells of sunscreen and boat fuel and the heat that comes off metal in summer. This is not what people expect water to smell of, but port water is not river water, and July port water is its own thing.
In November the smell changes. The fuel is still there but the heat is gone and without the heat you smell what's underneath: something colder, something that has been there longer than the boats and the cranes. I don't know what to call it. Salt, maybe, though Rotterdam is ninety kilometres from the sea. Whatever it is, it's older than the city.
I photograph in November when I can. The light is lower and the colours are less obvious and the water does something in November that it doesn't do in July — it looks like it's keeping something. I have about sixty photographs of the Maas in November. I'm still trying to get the one I'm after.
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