The Nederlands Fotomuseum, the National Museum of Photography, will present Quickscan 3: Photography Now from 26 June to 22 November 2026. The exhibition, featuring work by twenty photographers and artists working in the Netherlands, will showcase the latest in Dutch photography. Since the previous edition of Quickscan, photography has become something that is difficult to define as a single medium. Boundaries between genres, techniques and forms of presentation have blurred, and the way images are made, shared and viewed has changed radically.
With work by Khalid Amakran, Bebe Blanco Agterberg, Jan Dirk van der Burg, Tina Farifteh, Jan Hoek, Esther Hovers & Raphaël Dallaporta, Sakir Khader, Paul Kooiker, Nazif Lopulissa, Coco Olakunle, Jaya Pelupessy, Peter Pflügler, Eva Roefs, Sarah van Rij, Anton Shebetko, Helmut Smits, Gilleam Trapenberg, Prins de Vos and Xiaoxiao Xu.
Quickscan 3 shows how contemporary photographers and artists approach photography as a fluid discipline. Makers now shift between photography, video, installation, archive material, performance and digital technologies. Attention has been directed away from capturing the real world and towards exploring how images arise, circulate and acquire meaning.
The exhibition will centre on a number of developments in contemporary photography. Some makers are returning to photographs as physical objects, processing, cropping or manipulating the photographic image to reveal the making process. Others use archives as living material, finding and reactivating forgotten stories and personal histories. Documentary photography is also changing, with makers now conscious of their own role in the narrative.
Quickscan 3 also explores the changing status of the photobook, the influence of social media on image culture, and the role of moving images and artificial intelligence in photographic practice. The exhibition shows, in a range of presentations – from tangible collages and experimental photobooks to personal film footage and AI-generated images – how photography continually adopts new forms.
“Quickscan 3 shows the extent to which photography has become ‘fluid’ and how makers are all, in their own way, seeking new ways of handling images, media and the visible world around us.”
“This is an excellent moment, both for the field and for the museum, for a third edition of Quickscan, taking stock ten years on through the eyes of two of our curators, who inspire and challenge from a plurality of perspectives. In this exhibition contemporary, cross-disciplinary visions of photography and the artistic distinctiveness of the maker come together in refreshing and insightful ways.”
Widespread use of social media has not only changed the way we take photographs, but also the way they are viewed and spread. Platforms like Instagram have made photography more accessible and immediate, but at the same time they have unleashed a persistent, economic battle for visibility and attention. Within this flow of digital images, photographers look for new ways of slowing down, looking attentively and giving images meaning and depth.
At the same time, the advent of AI-generated images raises fundamental questions about authenticity, ownership and credibility. While photography was for a long time handled as a way of recording reality, this relationship is now becoming increasingly murky. Quickscan 3 will highlight artists’ critical attitude to an image culture in which the relationship between photography and reality can never be taken for granted.
To coincide with Quickscan 3 the Nederlands Fotomuseum is organising performances, discussions, film screenings and meetings about the photobook and contemporary image culture. The opening on the evening of Thursday 25 June will include a performance by Jan Dirk van der Burg on the subject of Photography Now, a recording of which will also be shown in the exhibition. In the summer and autumn holidays, workshops will be organised in collaboration with makers featured in the exhibition. Information on all events will be posted on the events page of the website after the opening.
With work by: Khalid Amakran, Bebe Blanco Agterberg, Jan Dirk van der Burg, Tina Farifteh, Jan Hoek, Esther Hovers & Raphaël Dallaporta, Sakir Khader, Paul Kooiker, Nazif Lopulissa, Coco Olakunle, Jaya Pelupessy, Peter Pflügler, Eva Roefs, Sarah van Rij, Anton Shebetko, Helmut Smits, Gilleam Trapenberg, Prins de Vos and Xiaoxiao Xu
