AMSTERDAM.- This year marks the 50th anniversary of Document Netherlands, the Rijksmuseum’s annual photographic commission. Each year, a Dutch photographer is invited to explore and document a current social topic. For the 2025 edition the museum asked Iranian-Dutch photographer, filmmaker and artist Tina Farifteh (b. 1982) to document the subject of asylum. The central figure in her exhibition is a man identified only by his initial: B. Following more than four months in immigration detention at Schiphol Airport and a stay in Ter Apel asylum complex, B. is now in the midst of an asylum procedure. Previous photographers commissioned for Document Netherlands include Ed van der Elsken, Hans Aarsman, Céline van Balen, Dana Lixenberg, Sharelly Emanuelson and Mounir Raji. The exhibition runs from 1 November 2025 to 11 January 2026.

"B.’s words and gaze hold up a mirror to us, lending meaning to the photographs of the bleak and often hostile architecture of the Dutch asylum system. How is it that a system once designed to protect people in need has become capable of inflicting harm?" --- Tina Farifteh

Exhibition

Farifteh presents two videos of B. alongside her photographs. By positioning him as the narrator, she reverses the gaze on our asylum procedures: Instead of talking about asylum seekers, she literally has us listen to one of them. Also on display in the exhibition is a portrait of B. that is obscured by frosted glass to preserve his anonymity – only when he feels safe enough will the glass be removed, revealing his identity to everyone. Farifteh was granted access to the Schiphol Detention Centre, part of the Schiphol Judicial Complex, where she captured images of the cells, cell doors, observation room and outdoor enclosure. In addition, Farifteh took photographs at the Ter Apel asylum complex. In one of the videos, B. describes what it is like to stay at these locations.

Tina Farifteh

Tina Farifteh is a photographer, filmmaker and visual artist whose work explores the impact of power structures on the lives of ordinary people. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and completed her master’s at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Her earlier works include the audiovisual installation The Flood (2021) and the short documentary Kitten or Refugee? (2023), for which she won the 2024 Silver Camera for Storytelling.

Fifty years of Document Netherlands

The Rijksmuseum has been awarding the annual Document Netherlands photography commission since 1975. Each year, a theme is selected for the commission that is relevant, emblematic and significant for society. Fifty years of Document Nederland commissions have yielded more than 3,000 photographs for the Rijksmuseum collection. Together, these works form a distinctive record of defining themes and developments in Dutch society in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Document Netherlands Junior

Alongside Document Netherlands, the Rijksmuseum’s photography gallery is presenting Document Netherlands Junior, the annual photographic competition and display for students in secondary and vocational education. The competition shares its theme with the main commission. For each edition, ten young photographers are selected to take part in a masterclass, given this year by Tina Farifteh and experts from the Rijksmuseum. Their photographs will be on display in the second room of the photography gallery.