Nederlands Fotomuseum

The Nederlands Fotomuseum emerged from a legacy left by the professor and lawyer from Amsterdam, Hein Wertheimer. Wertheimer, an amateur photographer, bequeathed 22 million florins to the Prince Bernhard Fund upon his death in 1997, with the purpose of creating a photography museum. The museum was inaugurated in 2003.

Since 2007, the museum has been situated on Wilhelminakade in Rotterdam, occupying the former workshops of the Holland-America Line. It boasts the most state-of-the-art photographic repository in the Netherlands.

The museum’s collection represents a significant part of the photographic history of the Netherlands, comprising over 5.5 million negatives, slides, and prints. The digital collection alone contains 120,000 photographs.

Moreover, it features 150 archives of Dutch photographers and provides an overview of 100 years of Dutch photographic history.

The library, the most specialized in photography throughout the country, houses over 20,000 photography books and subscribes to 60 national and international photography magazines.

The museum aims to enhance visitors’ understanding of high-quality photography and promote Dutch photography abroad. It also organizes conferences, workshops, educational activities, and publishes publications.

The museum presents around ten exhibitions each year, showcasing prominent figures from the international photography world, and periodically exhibits works from its own collection. It also provides grants to young talents in the field of photography.

The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Nederlands Fotomuseum. Las Palmas, Statendam 1, 3072 MD Rotterdam

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