Sint-Katelijne-Waver (Brussel Morning Newspaper) – After 30 years in business, Brecht photographer Sven Van Roy is closing his shop as the municipality begins taking official passport photos internally.
Since this year, the municipality has been accepting them.
“It is a decision by the government to combat identity fraud, but the municipality is not obliged to follow it,”
says Van Roy.
To fight identity fraud, the federal government has introduced a new method that allows communities to take their own passport images. Although citizens can use this service for free, many photographers disagree.
“It was one of the few things where you, as a photographer, still had customers,”
says Van Roy.
As a photographer, it was one of the rare occasions when you still had clients.
Van Roy is compelled to close his store after thirty years. The Belgium municipality and the internet world are now too fierce of a rival.
“I still try to sell everything, but I will definitely keep my entire photo archive. You never know if someone will need those photos later,”
he says.
Since the passport photo is directly connected to the identity document, the federal government hopes to prevent passport photo fraud using this technique. Van Roy, however, says that is not a foolproof system.
“As a citizen, you are not obliged to have your photo taken at the town hall and so you cannot stop real fraudsters this way.”
Van Roy adds that those aren’t the only systemic leaks. For instance, passport images of infants, foreign documents, or individuals of a different nationality are not taken by the municipality.
“Unfortunately, staying open for these exceptions isn’t enough to save my store.”
“The association of professional photographers proposes an alternative in which photographers themselves send the photos digitally to the government,”
Van Roy explains.
“The customer then receives a QR code of the photo, which they can use to go to the town hall.”
They already work this way in Germany, among other places.
The municipality of Brecht had already taken this decision earlier and reversing it is no longer an option, according to them.
“You see this system popping up all over Flanders, because every municipality sees the advantage of it,”
says mayor of Brecht, Frans Van Looveren (now 2960).
“It is something we can offer for free and our board could not be convinced that there was a better service than this for our residents.”
“I don’t have a plan B yet, because it all happened so fast,”
says Van Roy.
Comments
14 responses to “Brecht Photographer Closes Shop After 30 Years of Service”
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Closing up shop after 30 years? Classic move, as if the government knows anything about quality pics! 😂 How about a ‘free’ photo that looks like it was taken in a dark alley instead? 🕵️♂️
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Closing shop after 30 years? Sounds like a classic case of government efficiency—who needs local charm when you can have your passport photo taken by someone who’s also busy fixing the town’s potholes? 😂📸
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Closing shop after 30 years? Brilliant move, mate! Who needs a local photographer when you can trust your passport pic to the same folks who bring you the delights of bureaucracy? 😂📸
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Closing the shop after 30 years? Brilliant! Nothing screams “progress” like a government taking over the art of sorry passport snaps. 📸🙄
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Closing shop after 30 years? Talk about a real-life plot twist! Guess the only thing more reliable than a Belgian waffle is a government initiative to ruin small businesses. 🍻📸
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Closing your photography shop for a government selfie service is definitely the sort of retirement plan every artist dreams of, innit? 😂 Just what we needed—more passport photos with the charm of a tax form!
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Closing shop after 30 years? Bravo, Sven! Who needs loyal customers when the government can snap your passport photos for free—truly a masterstroke in keeping the arts alive! 😂📸
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Closing shop after 30 years? Brilliant move, just what every photographer dreams of—letting the town hall take their selfies! 📸😅
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Closing shop after 30 years? How positively charming of the municipality to turn a cozy little photography business into a relic of the past, all in the name of “efficiency”. 📸💔 #Progress, right?
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Closing after 30 years? Truly a brilliant strategy from the municipality—next, they’ll take over portrait painting and the whole art scene will be sorted! 🎨😅
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Closing shop after 30 years? Classic! Nothing screams progress like trading a local photographer for a municipal passport photo factory—who needs creativity when you’ve got bureaucracy? 😂📸
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Closing shop after 30 years? Must be nice to hand over your business to the local town hall – they really know how to put the fun in functional bureaucracy! 🤷♂️📸
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Closing shop after 30 years, eh? Guess the only thing more permanent than a passport photo is government incompetence! 😂✈️
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Closing shop after 30 years? Brilliant! Who needs a personal touch when you can have a government employee snap your best side in a fluorescent-lit dungeon? 😂📸
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