Participating Artists Press Agency
“Migrationpapa”
Wednesday 18th of June 2025 – page 3
On a Monday morning in November 2010, six photographers in five cities around the world take their cameras to urban neighbourhoods where newcomers arrive. The photos flow into the PAPA website like a wave moving around the world. First from Bangladesh, five hours later from Rotterdam and Lagos – cities in the same time zone. Detroit and São Paulo complete the group another seven hours later. From the first week the photos and captions were projected on the windows of the cultural centre at the entrance to the neighbourhood in Rotterdam. The same will happen in other cities. In this way the inhabitants of the various newcomers neighbourhoods not only get a fresh perspective on their own lives but they also get to see how newcomers in other cities live. Migrationpapa is a PAPA project for Kosmopolis Rotterdam with the generous support of Hivos
Saturday 6th of November 2010
Rotterdam -
Recently al lot of Polish people started populating the Tarwewijk. In the evening the quarter fills up with cars carrying Polish numberplates. They do not work in Rotterdam but travel…
Lino Hellings –
Migrationpapa
Sao Paulo -
I first took the picture. Then I tried to talk with them. Once more, they didn’t want to talk. When they saw me with the camera they quicly went inside…
Ines Correa –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
Yet another barber shop. I was intrigued by the fact that this doubled as the place where the barber reared his homing pigeons. There were several houses and the pigeons…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
Young skippers are trained in Maashaven. Lars de la Rie (one more week of school to go before he will be inland skipper) told me he was born only 5…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
Ali Toptas tells me why there are no children in the play ground I saw the day before yesterday. There is a brand new play ground, also not far from…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
We do have a big problem in integrating newcomers in our society. It is hopefull that people from Surinam, a former Dutch colony seem to have found their way up…
Lino Hellings –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
Two men who migrated to the city from Kentucky in 1950s work on an old truck that belongs to the one on the right. They stayed behind when most of…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Sao Paulo -
This image was made in the center of Sao Paulo City. In this region was the only Terminal Bus Station of the town until 1982, when it was turned off…
Ines Correa –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
A pit-bull mix dog barks at a stranger in a Delray neighborhood in Detroit. Pit bulls are common in the city; they are feared for their jaw strength and admired…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
Adris Nia, 60, grew up in Detroit. His parents moved here from the south of the US to take government positions in the first half of the 20th century. They…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
Men who are mostly from northern Nigeria are off loading bags of rice into the wharehouse in Iddo terminus market. The market is popular for transtional trading. This has made…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
To my surprise, the Chinese poet Bei Dao (now living in Danmark, is quoted on a garbage truck. It says: ‘ The source dries out, the fire rages, the road…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
Kali is considered the goddess of time and change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence. Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
This young man runs a phone battery recharging service. There is the saying ‘every disappointment can be a blessing’. This certainly applies to the battery recharging services dotted across the…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
Many people in Tarwewijk who used to work in the harbour and factories are jobless today. The new job market is in hairdo (African, Asian, Western), international telephone booths, small…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
A rickshaw walla with his baby girl. While it is difficult to make ends meet with what one earns pulling a rickshaw. Once children are born, it becomes more difficult…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
This young mother buys her groceries cheap in the mini-supermarket of the Sheikh family and the Bas van der Heijden across the street. Her pram is expensive, this is the…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
Whatare we to make of a circular illuminated sign with the text: ‘OK, safe point,report violence’? Is this a safe point because the sign is here or is this…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
A house in Mexican town, Southwest Detroit caught fire. Fires are daily occurrences in the city because of poverty, old electric wiring, insurance motivated arsons or lack of caution…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
A sticker with a Detroit Lives! logo lies on the sidewalk in Woodbridge, historic neighborhood in midtown Detroit. There’s a lot of meaning contained in this image. First, the location…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
The ‘services’ required by the community include entertainment and medical support. The snake charmer provides both. While people like to watch the dance of the snakes, the charmer, Lokman also…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
The Polish supermarket is a huge success. The Yugoslavian Zeko moved to Rotterdam nineteen years ago . Since four years he lives in the Tarwewijk. He started of as a greengrocer…
Lino Hellings –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
This is the man around whom I will be building my story. He lives on the upper floor of the wooden huts in Sadek City Model Town.…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
In many shop windows in Dordtselaan, like this Islamic Surinam butcher, a poster on violence and safety is displayed. It suggests that we all should act when witnessing violence.According…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa