Nederlands Fotomuseum

Visual Memory of the Netherlands

The Nederlands Fotomuseum was born thanks to the legacy of Professor Hein Wertheimer, an Amsterdam lawyer and passionate amateur photographer.

When Wertheimer passed away in 1997, he left 22 million guilders to the Prince Bernhard Fund with the instruction to create a museum dedicated to photography.

The museum opened in 2003. Since 2007, it has been located on the Wilhelminakade in Rotterdam, inside the former workshop building of the Holland-America Line.

The museum houses the most advanced photographic archive in the Netherlands.

A Century of Photographic History

The museum’s collection represents an essential part of Dutch photographic history. It includes more than 5.5 million negatives, slides, and prints, along with a digital collection of 120,000 photographs.

It also preserves 150 archives from Dutch photographers, offering a view of 100 years of photography in the Netherlands.

The museum’s library — the most specialized photography library in the country — holds more than 20,000 books and maintains 60 subscriptions to national and international magazines.

The Nederlands Fotomuseum aims to promote knowledge of high-quality photography and to support Dutch photography abroad. It organizes lectures, workshops, educational activities, and publications related to photographic art.

Each year, the museum presents around ten exhibitions, showcasing works by internationally renowned photographers as well as pieces from its own permanent collection. Additionally, the museum 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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