The Dutch National Museum of Photography, Nederlands Fotomuseum, will move into its new premises in the second half of 2025 in the heart of the port of Rotterdam.
Located in Rotterdam's Las Palmas business district since 2007, the Nederlands Fotomuseum (Netherlands Photography Museum) has become the Netherlands' leading center for the exhibition, preservation, collection, and study of photography. It was founded in 2003 thanks to the vision of Hein Wertheimer, a passionate amateur photographer, who bequeathed 22 million guilders (11,2 million euros) upon his death to establish a photography museum. For the past twenty years, the institution has been tracing the history of Dutch photography in all its facets, from 1842 to the present day. Today, it joins other major national institutions, such as the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. Continuing its ambitious expansion, it will move in the second half of 2025 to the Santos Building, a recently renovated historical landmark located in the port of the Netherlands' second-largest city.
INTERNATIONAL REFERENCE
The acquisition of this building was made possible thanks to a donation from the Droom en Daad Foundation, dedicated to art and culture since 2016. Its ultramodern architecture will thus continue to promote the museum's collection of more than 6,5 million photographs, which is expected to reach 7,5 million images by 2028.
This building, designed by architects JP Stok Wzn and JJ Kanters, is a listed national heritage site. It opened in 1903 as a warehouse for a Brazilian coffee company. In 2021, the German design department store group Stilwerk restored and transformed it. The current renovation was entrusted to two architectural firms, RHWZ Architekten and WDJArchitecten.
The Nederlands Fotomuseum will include exhibition spaces, a bookstore, a photo library, an educational center, community spaces, a café, a darkroom for professional and amateur photographers, and a rooftop restaurant with panoramic views of Rotterdam. The original interior and six floors have been preserved, with a cast-iron column structure and a large basement. Two new floors have been added at the top, enveloped by a semi-transparent facade. On the ground floor, an atrium has been created with a central stairwell running through the building.
THE HISTORY OF DUTCH PHOTOGRAPHY
The unique feature of this new space is that it also makes the preservation of this Dutch photographic heritage visible to the public through dedicated storage areas and workshops. The open floor plan and closed facades, with minimal natural light, are designed to create an ideal environment for storing and displaying the collection of photographs and sensitive photographic objects.
The museum's collection, directed by Birgit Donker since 2018, who previously served as director of the Mondriaan Fund for Visual Arts and Cultural Heritage, is brimming with treasures. The exhibition in the Gallery of Honour, reconfigured for the new building, remains a cornerstone of the curatorial approach. This collection of iconic images tells the story of Dutch photography, from the medium's invention in the early 19th century to the digital age. It includes masterpieces by Anton Corbijn, Dana Lixenberg, Violette Cornelius, Paul Huf, Rineke Dijkstra, and Erwin Olaf.
All these changes thus complete the ambition of the Nederlands Fotomuseum to build and develop a true "international platform for photography".
NEDERLANDSFOTOMUSEUM.NL
