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.
“Many customers support me and also find it sad that the store will close.”
How will Van Roy adapt his business after passport photo demand declines?
Following the drop in demand for passport photos due to the municipality taking over this service, photographer Sven Van Roy intends to modify his business by perhaps refocusing his attention away from passport photography.
Extending into additional photographic services like event, commercial, artistic, and portrait photography.
providing specialty picture products, such as prints, photo albums, or repair services.
Enhancing digital photography services’ online visibility or marketing photography-related goods.
Utilizing his experience by offering photography classes or workshops.
According to Van Roy’s remarks, he is reevaluating his business plan in response to the loss of a significant revenue stream and may be diversifying to stay afloat in spite of the municipality’s new passport photo service.
