The photography world does not feel taken for granted by the government

It is a dance that is feared by every cultural institution: those for subsidy. There is a lot at stake, especially in the battle for the large pot of money from the national government. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) distributed 413 million euros last year (and also paid another 217 million to a number of museums).

Because the available budget is always overstretched, there are always losers. In the photography world, that number has become very high, people have been complaining for some time. In an attempt to do something about this, a lobbying body was even established in 2019: the Platform Fotografie Nederland. Nine organizations are now members.

Like Northern Lights. From this year on, the photo festival in Groningen and Friesland will no longer receive an annual subsidy from the government, partly because of ‘lack of innovation’. In 2020 and 2021 Noorderlicht still received 160,000 euros per year, in the slightly more distant past that was even three times as much. To keep his biennial festival going, director Kees van der Meiden had to spend a lot of time looking for financial support. ‘I hardly ever manage to manage, because I am constantly writing grant applications’, he sighs.

Thanks to subsidies from three provinces and the city of Groningen, plus contributions from private funds, the next edition can take place in 2023. ‘However, the budget is becoming increasingly vulnerable’, says Van der Meiden. Noorderlicht has been around for 32 years and has built up an enormous track record with its social themes. But for one reason or another we no longer fit into the government subsidy system.’

Paradox has also joined the platform. The foundation in Edam produces photo exhibitions, photo books, films and digital publications. Paradox received structural government support for many years, but saw it evaporate last year. One of the reasons: the organization ‘is not sufficiently successful in attracting an audience itself’. ‘We had to downsize’, says director Bas Vroege. ‘While Paradox has brought more Dutch photography abroad since 1993 than all other photography institutions in the Netherlands combined.’

Use of the lobby: photography should be given its own position in the cultural system of the national government, just like opera or dance, for example. Now that is not the case, which means that there is hardly any budget of its own and photography almost always has to conform to the rules of other art forms that do receive support from The Hague. Much of the government money for photography, for example, is paid out through a fund for visual arts.

‘That makes our sector paralyzed’, says Paradox director Vroege. ‘You are never able to say: what is photography today, what should we actually do about it?’

And that while photography in the Netherlands is of a high standard internationally. Our country has four photo museums, three large photo festivals and several photo stages. ‘And everyone takes pictures with their phone’, says Noorderlicht director Van der Meiden. ‘Photography is all around us. But you don’t see that in the culture system of the national government.’

Not an art form

Why does photography not have its own position? According to Vroege, who has been involved in this field since 1980, working with a camera was not previously recognized as an art form. During a review of the subsidy system some thirty years ago, it was proposed to correct this; photography would henceforth fall under the visual arts. At the time, that was seen as a win.

Many people now think otherwise. Early: ‘Despite the fact that the domain of visual media has been dominated by photography for many decades, it has been subsumed under the visual arts as a sub-door.’

‘There is a big difference with the position of film, for example’, observe Birgit Donker and Hans van der Windt, general and business director of the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam (which is also a member of the lobbying platform). Film receives a subsidy directly from the national government, not through a visual arts fund. And the amount of financial support also varies quite a bit.

BIS

The state subsidizes the arts in three ways. The best known is the ‘BIS’, the basic cultural infrastructure. This is good for 198 million euros per year (not counting the emergency aid due to the corona pandemic). Anyone who is included in the BIS 2021-2024 is assured of a subsidy for four years.

Theater, dance, classical music, design: many art forms are represented here, each with multiple institutions. Movie too. Four film festivals are part of the BIS 2021-2024: Cinekid, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and Netherlands Film Festival (NFF). Together they receive 4.6 million euros annually. In addition, the Eye Film Museum in Amsterdam receives 2.1 million a year (and this is not the only government subsidy, we will see later). Added together, this is 6.7 million euros.

And photography? It is missing in the BIS.

No addition

Between 2021 and 2024, an additional 215 million euros will go to six National Culture Funds each year, which will further distribute this sum. The Mondriaan Fund will receive 31.1 million euros from this to stimulate visual arts (including photography) and heritage. After deduction of the costs of the own organization, there was more than 25 million euros left to pay out last year. According to the annual report, the Mondriaan Fund did this through 22 schemes, in which advisors from the art world had an important voice.

Three photography institutions received an annual subsidy in 2021. Noorderlicht received its last 160,000 euros. Fotodok, a stage in Utrecht for documentary photography, and Melkweg Expo, an exhibition space in Amsterdam for contemporary photography, each collected 110,000 euros. In addition, a lot of support was given to individual projects.

When asked how much has been paid out in total for photography, the Mondriaan Fund answers that it is not possible to add up. According to director Eelco van der Lingen, awards are not kept per sector, because many artists use multiple media and techniques (for example, they use photography and video interchangeably). Van der Lingen: ‘Disciplines are much more fluid than thirty years ago. We would not do many artists and institutions justice if we tried to limit them in a selection to the label photography.’

De Volkskrant makes an attempt anyway and makes an overview of all awards to photography on the basis of the 2021 annual report. According to the director of the Mondriaan Fund, this list is far from complete. To prove that, he comes up with his own summary. Photography received at least three million euros last year, he calculates.

However, his overview appears to contain 650,000 euros worth of items that should not have been included. In addition, some attributions to photography have been overlooked that de Volkskrant had performed. The three million euros will eventually become 2.4 million.

According to Van der Lingen, this is not yet the whole sum. He cites a number of examples. For example, he refers to the payments from his fund to 21 art museums to make purchases. Which is included in the Nederlands Fotomuseum. But the contributions to the twenty other art museums are not – the annual report of the Mondriaan Fund does not mention which purchases they have made. Van der Lingen estimates that these institutions have acquired ‘many tons’ worth of photography.

‘It would require a particularly extensive, intensive and subjective study of all files to arrive at an overall picture,’ he says. ‘That image would particularly endorse that photography is interwoven with all other disciplines within the visual arts and that photography is very well served within the regulations of the Mondriaan Fund.’

According to Van der Lingen, half of the available budget of his fund, more than 25 million euros, went to visual arts (the other half went to heritage). The 2.4 million euros in verified support for photography is almost a fifth of that.

And movie? It has its own National Culture Fund: the Netherlands Film Fund, which stimulates the production of films in the Netherlands. Last year, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science transferred almost 57 million euros to this.

Heritage law

The third subsidy stream from the government for culture is the largest: last year 29 museums received a total of 217 million euros because they manage a collection of national importance. They have recently ceased to be part of the BIS, but will now receive their support from The Hague via the Heritage Act. As a result, they are assured of government subsidy every year. This group includes the Nederlands Fotomuseum and the Eye Filmmuseum.

The first received 2.8 million euros last year. The second received more than three times as much: nine million (plus another 2.1 million in BIS money).

A caveat should be made here, however. There are more government-subsidized museums that show photography. For example, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which has a collection of 160,000 photos, also organizes photo exhibitions. But it is difficult to determine what bite they will take from the total government grant.

Between novel and film

The American photographer Lewis Baltz (1945-2014) once championed his field with a remark that has become famous: he recommended that photography be seen as a ‘narrow, deep area between the novel and the film.’

As far as government subsidies are concerned, photography and film are not at all close to each other. Photography received at least 5.2 million euros, probably more. Almost 73 million euros was made available for film, although implementation costs still have to be deducted.

According to Van der Lingen of the Mondriaan Fund, it is logical that film is much better endowed: ‘Because the film sector is a truly distinctive sector with its own infrastructure (cinemas, art houses, television, streaming services) and audience group. In addition, because of the scale and industry, film productions require much higher and differently arranged budgets.’

On the other hand, Paradox director Vroege states that the profession of photography is much larger than that of film and that photo exhibitions are well attended. He believes that State Secretary Gunay Uslu for Culture should ‘at least’ have an analysis of the situation made.

And literature, the third art form Baltz included in his equation? In 2021, they received more than 20 million euros in government subsidy. Also a lot more than photography.