STREET PHOTOGRAPHER. “Such a flat boat is at most a floating Brasskate villa. Antwerp residents don’t leave the house for that” (Antwerp)

Antwerp through the lens of Marc Pennartz.

Would you like to be welcomed with open arms? Probably. But if that doesn’t happen and even an entire city seems to ignore your arrival, then it is understandable that you feel unwanted.

Maybe it happened to this man too. He was standing on a ship, alone, under a pale but pleasant April sun. No other sign of life on deck. And there was hardly anyone on the Scheldekaai, despite the nice weather.

The boat, although intended to provide a few hundred people with an unforgettable outing, presented a somewhat gloomy appearance. Like a yacht owned by someone with too much money and too few friends.

In reality it was a cruise ship. A flat model that sails down rivers. And the Antwerp resident doesn’t leave the house for that. Well for a floating apartment building, because that is what some people dream about Happy Daysbreakfast buffets with charming singers and holidays with At homeactors, and makes others prank because those sailing mastodons pollute a lot. But such a flat boat is at most a floating Brasskate villa.

Still, it is strange: a villa that suddenly takes over half of the Scheldekaai and makes the river invisible. And no one seems to notice.

The man on deck stared motionless at the silent quay for a few minutes, then turned and focused his gaze on the Left Bank. Soon he would be on his way to another city. Perhaps a warmer welcome awaited him there. Or just a welcome. Anything better than indifference.

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