The exhibition "Legends of Amsterdam," now open for free in the City Hall lobby, brings 750 years of Amsterdam’s history to life. Through impressively realistic images created using artificial intelligence (AI), the boundaries between history and imagination blur, offering visitors a unique glimpse into the city's past.
At the exhibition’s opening, Amelia Strens, chair of the Centrum District, expressed her admiration for the way the exhibition makes the city’s history accessible to a modern audience: “It’s impressive how you can almost feel how people lived in the past. This is not just an ordinary collection of old photos but a new way to look at our rich history.”
The exhibition showcases the work of photographer and filmmaker Harrison May, who has been living in Amsterdam for 10 years. He combines historical data with AI technology to create lifelike representations of scenes from old Amsterdam.
Visitors experience a sense of ‘time travel,’ where, for instance, Beguines stroll through their courtyards, and historical events, such as the great city fires, are made tangible and lifelike. By using AI, May manages to do more than just reconstruct images—he conveys the emotions and human experiences of that time.
The exhibition is now open for viewing in the City Hall lobby and is part of ‘750x Amsterdam’: a platform where 750 Amsterdam stories are collected under one digital roof specifically for the celebration of the jubilee year.
