A national survey carried out by the United Companies of the Photographic Sector (Eufoto) association concludes that more than half of the businesses will disappear if the ID photo option is eliminated and 35% will have to lay off employees. According to the data, the weight of the billing of the images for DNI and passport represents more than 30% and a third of the clients who enter one of these stores do so for this.

At the moment, providing the image at the police stations to renew the DNI is still mandatory, but “nothing is certain. Everything is up in the air for us and we photographers are very concerned”, says Benet Bohigas, owner of one of the first establishments dedicated to photography for 35 years. The Association of Professional Photographers of the Balearic Islands has recently shown its support for an urgent negotiation with the Ministry of the Interior.

questions

The questions that the sector is experiencing in this first week of its entry into force are constant. In fact, associations and groups of businessmen have not stopped claiming "an agreement in which all parties can benefit" to prevent these small businesses from being doomed to disappear.

Among these agreements, they do bet on the digitization of the system to obtain the photograph "but without damaging a sector that has collaborated with the Ministry and the citizen for 75 years." From the Balearic Islands, the Association of Photographers continues to work to find a solution for the hundreds of businesses on the Islands. The police unions publicly showed their disagreement in making the image from the police stations.

“News arrives from Madrid that they have set up machines to take express photographs. The truth is that while all the opposition parties in the Congress of Deputies ask Marlaska for a solution so as not to harm us, from the Balearic Islands no political party or institution has shown any interest”, regrets Benet Bohigas.