Netherlands Photo Museum

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The Photo Museum's previous location at Las Palmas warehouse, Rotterdam Nederlands Fotomuseum (11192247676).jpg
The Photo Museum's previous location at Las Palmas warehouse, Rotterdam

The Netherlands Photo Museum (Dutch : Nederlands Fotomuseum) (NFM) is a photography museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, that was founded in 2003. [1] It is currently closed as the museum moves to a new location in Rotterdam. [2]

Contents

The museum collection consists of many historical, social and cultural images from the 20th and 21st century, from the Netherlands and elsewhere. It manager more than 150 archives taken by Dutch photographers. The archives are stored in climate controlled film storage facilities.

The Santos warehouse: the new location for the museum, scheduled for opening in 2026 'Pakhuis Santos' Brede Hilledijk Rotterdam (6952128631).jpg
The Santos warehouse: the new location for the museum, scheduled for opening in 2026

The previous location of the museum was the Wilhelminakade [3] in a workshop building once owned by the Holland America Line, also known as the Las Palmas building. In 2021 then-director Birgit Donker began looking for a new location, motivated by the rising costs in maintaining the Las Palmas building. Two years later, and following a donation of 38 million Euros from the Droom en Daad foundation, the Fotomuseum was able to buy the nearby Santos warehouse. [4] Significant work to refurbish the building was quickly undertaken. [5] Nevertheless, the original re-opening date of September 2025 has since been postponed to February 2026. [6]

Interior shot of the Las Palmas building Signais (3603842808).jpg
Interior shot of the Las Palmas building

Collection

The museum collection consists of more than 6.5 million objects - the second-largest museum collection in the Netherlands (after Naturalis). [7] It covers the entire history of photography by Dutch from early glass negatives and daguerreotypes to current day digital works; however, the specialist areas of the collection are documentary photography and analogue photos from the 20th century. [8]

Around 300,000 of the photographs are available to see in museum's online collection. [9]

History

The Netherlands Photo Museum was an amalgamation of several related institutions. In the late 1990s, the Prins Bernhard Fund was given the task of managing the significant endowment of Hein Wertheimer, a wealthy Dutch lawyer and keen photographer. The original advice was to share the funds over several existing institutions. However, the members of the Bernhard Fund decided otherwise: the funds should be dedicated to a new centre that would fuse the Nederlands Foto Archief and the Nederlands Foto Instituut. The first recommendation was to host this in Amsterdam [10] . However, within three years a proposal had been submitted to the government to host it in Rotterdam (with the additional partcipation of the Nederlands Fotorestauratie-atelier (the Dutch workshop for photography conservation) [11] By 2003, the new museum had opened.

2025 Firing of director

In 2025, the director of the museum. Birgit Donker, was fired by the supervisory board. [12] She was accused of 'repeatedly holding back information or presenting information incorrectly', as well as interfering in a process related to an internal investigation. Later investigation painted a more nuanced picture, with newer and more long-term staff in the museum having different views on the performance and behaviour of Donker. [13] The firing has delayed the opening of the museum in the Santos warehouse.

Directors

References

  1. ↑ "Collecties | Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam". collectie.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl.
  2. ↑ "Nederlands Fotomuseum – Het Nederlands Fotomuseum, ervaar fotografie op een nieuwe manier" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  3. ↑ "The Wilhelminakade along the river Meuse is the famous pier of Rotterdam". 6 November 2023.
  4. ↑ "Nederlands Fotomuseum krijgt gift van 38 miljoen en koopt pakhuis in Rotterdam". De Volkskrant. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  5. ↑ "A peek inside the Nederlands Fotomuseum as it prepares for its 2025 opening". Wallpaper*. 2024-07-18. Retrieved 2025-10-11.
  6. ↑ B.V, Museumtijdschrift. "Nederlands Fotomuseum heropent februari 2026". Museumtijdschrift (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-10-11.
  7. ↑ Moraal Redacteur, Anne; Moraal Redacteur, Anne (2025-09-25). "Opeens moest de directeur van het Nederlands Fotomuseum vertrekken. Waarom?". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  8. ↑ "Collectie – Nederlands Fotomuseum" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  9. ↑ "Collecties | Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam". collectie.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  10. ↑ HAIJTEMA, Arno (24 June 1998). "'Iedereen wil fotomuseum in Amsterdam'". De Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  11. ↑ "Mogelijk toch fotomuseum in Las Palmas". De Volkskrant (in Dutch). 12 December 2001. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  12. ↑ "Directeur van Nederlands Fotomuseum ontslagen na intern onderzoek" . Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  13. ↑ Moraal Redacteur, Anne; Moraal Redacteur, Anne (2025-09-25). "Opeens moest de directeur van het Nederlands Fotomuseum vertrekken. Waarom?". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  14. ↑ "Ruud Visschedijk na 17 jaar weg bij Nederlands Fotomuseum". www.rijnmond.nl (in Dutch). 2018-06-11. Retrieved 2025-10-11.
  15. ↑ Haijtema, Arno (17 September 2018). "Birgit Donker wordt nieuwe directeur fotomuseum en wil het 'Nederlandse profiel' versterken". De Volkskrant. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  16. ↑ "Als het stormt, duikt de Raad van Toezicht weg". Netkwesties (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-10-11.

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