How does the Nederlands Fotomuseum transport 6.5 million pictures

At 10.00 on a vibrant and bitterly chilly November day, Monocle is in one in every of Rotterdam’s largest harbourside warehouses. Outside, two elimination vans start unloading pallets stuffed with among the nation’s most precious works of pictures. The Nederlands Fotomuseum – the nationwide custodian of 6.5 million pictures, negatives and objects – is transferring into its new residence: Pakhuis Santos, a former espresso warehouse. 

Its assortment is without doubt one of the world’s largest and is predicted to develop to 7.5 million objects by 2028. It focuses on work by Dutch photographers in addition to those that spent prolonged intervals within the Netherlands. Loaded onto the again of these vans are pictures that inform the nation’s story, reminiscent of Bernard F Eilers’s documentation of the Amsterdam School of structure and Augusta Curiel’s visible data of life in Suriname underneath Dutch colonial rule. The assortment options archives of greater than 175 photographers – Ata Kandó, Esther Kroon and Ed van der Elsken amongst them. Stored with the photographs are a lot of glass-plate negatives and call sheets that reveal the processes behind the artistry. Alongside Ed van der Elsken’s iconic pictures of younger Parisians within the Fifties are scrappy contact sheets adorned along with his vibrant scribbles that mark his favorite photographs or how he wished a picture to be cropped. “We go to great lengths to consider how these photographers would have liked us to display their work,” says Nederlands Fotomuseum’s head of collections, Martijn van den Broek. 

The assortment additionally features a collection of portraits by Erwin Olaf, wherein he burnt the color negatives with a lighter to dramatic impact. There are methods, then, to make this notoriously fragile artform much more so. But the operation to maneuver the works into the Santos warehouse is a fragile affair. 

Dutch agency Imming Logistics Fine Art is dealing with the operation, overseen by Nederlands Fotomuseum’s Cobie Hijma. Inside the vans, the glass plates face the route of journey to forestall any jolts from damaging them. Hijma and her workforce have sketched detailed layouts of the autos’ interiors to determine essentially the most environment friendly option to transport the works. While the nation’s inclement climate was a trigger for concern, it has fortunately solely rained on a single day in the course of the six-week transportation schedule. “It was a team-building experience like no other,” says Hijma.    

As treasured plates, pallets and packing containers are unloaded from the autos, Van den Broek is available to supervise what seems like a cautious recreation of Tetris. All supplies had been moved on to their everlasting locations in climate-controlled storage areas as shortly as doable (items containing movie negatives are sometimes regulated at 4C). “If it’s not regulated properly, the changes in temperature as we move the archives can cause a build-up in condensation,” says Van den Broek. “It’s a highly technical exercise.”  

The new museum web site, which was constructed between 1901 and 1902, was initially used to retailer espresso imported from the Brazilian metropolis of Santos. It then sat vacant for greater than 60 years, adopted by an aborted try to rework it right into a design showroom. In 2023 the philanthropic Droom en Daad cultural basis bought the constructing to make sure that the Nederlands Fotomuseum may have a purpose-built house. And it’s an excellent factor too: the gathering has virtually doubled in dimension since its final transfer in 2007, which was to the Las Palmas constructing only a 15-minute stroll away.  

Pakhuis Santos is without doubt one of the few buildings in Rotterdam to outlive the Second World War. Its placing concrete and cast-iron construction has now been spruced up by native studio Wdjarchitecten and Hamburg-based Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten. The renovations have resulted in a rooftop extension and the opening up of the central atrium, which has allowed pure gentle to filter by way of every of the 5 storeys (in addition to the restaurant on the sixth), remodeling the dingy warehouse right into a construction that breathes whereas retaining its beaux arts soul. 

When it opens on 7 February, Nederlands Fotomuseum will be part of the newly opened Fenix Museum of Migration within the Rijnhaven district, a neighbourhood present process main redevelopment. While the archives may doc the ups and downs of the nation’s historical past, this transfer is about wanting to the long run. “Photography is an irreplaceable record of who we are,” says Van den Broek. “Yet it is among the most fragile forms of cultural heritage, making its protection not just a responsibility but a necessity.”nederlandsfotomuseum.nl