The drawings in this book are perhaps best described as written maps or graphic reportages. Rothuizen gradually found that his best way of being an artist consisted of walking around the city streets and meeting people. He wandered around cities like Cairo, New York, Guangzhou and Beirut but realized his work didn’t treat the city he was born and raised in.

He decided it was time to make a book about Amsterdam, which was difficult at first: the city is such an integral part of him that he found it hard to see what he was looking at. He realised that his Amsterdam was just a small part of the city. His routes tended to be the same, and so were the people and places. The book, De zachte atlas van Amsterdam, was a huge success, with 10,000 copies sold. Now, finally, there’s an English version of the book: The Soft Atlas of Amsterdam. The idea is the same, but the book is completely different, with new drawings.

This drawing of the Rijksmuseum is a good example of Rothuizen’s style: the building is recognizable, but portrayed in a highly original way, with eye for detail, as are all the places he draws. From a robbed jewellery store to the Leidseplein, and from a heroin clinic to a student flat: in The Soft Atlas of Amsterdam, both inhabitants and people from elsewhere, can see various aspects of Amsterdam life from a different perspective.