“Migrationpapa”

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

Detroit Lives!

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

Girls in kitchen

Dhaka -  The two girls decided they would be art directors for the day and took me around. At one point we went to the local photo lab to get prints made…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

Polski Sklep

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

Axe

Detroit -  A door is marked by a cut left by an axe when a burglar forced his entry into a house. Most of the residents who could afford to have left…
Marcin Szczepanski – Migrationpapa

Papers please

Rotterdam -  After having watched the (probably) illegal workers going off in the dark and after having said goodbeye to Arthur, I start to explore the quarter by car. Within short a…
Lino Hellings – Migrationpapa

Catch up with the news.

Dhaka -  Dhaka Bangladesh ”Beri Band” the embankment around Dhaka city, where a lot of migrants from the villages end up staying. Once preparing meat is over, time to catch up with…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

Barber shop and pigeons

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

A shop in a shop

Rotterdam -  Inside the Surinamese shop there is another shop a videotheque, your special supplier of Bollywood CDs and DVDs. On the yellow sign on the ceiling it says ‘Do not bring…
Lino Hellings – Migrationpapa

Rooftop

Dhaka -  With the upper floors of the bazaar demolished, light and rain come through the new openings. Plastic sheets of different colours make up the impromptu rooftop. Nice colours and space…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

Buying Cosmetics

Dhaka -  A woman haggles over the price of lipstick and other cosmetics. She is prepared to pay 15 Taka (around 15 euro cents) for the lot, but the seller wants 25…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

Working the hassle

Detroit -  A man has set up a yard sale in front of his house in Detroit’s Near East Side. He’s trying to sell the contents of a neighbouring house. Three chairs…
Marcin Szczepanski – Migrationpapa

The Harbour

Rotterdam -  The Tarwewijk Rotterdam. Harbourfront with scrap metal. Depot for trader in king size chains and anchors. Lino Hellings 1th of November 2010 The Tarwewijk translated is the…
Lino Hellings – Migrationpapa

Cheap houses

Rotterdam -  For what reasons do people leave the house/the city/the country they live in? And why do they choose The Tarwewijk as a quarter to live in? One of the explanations…
Lino Hellings – Migrationpapa

New Opportunities

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

Emerging from the earth

Dhaka -  The precision required in placing the fragile clay pots is difficult to gauge. Once each circle of pots is in position, the men tap the pots to hear for any…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

The houses

Dhaka -  Many of the inhabitants of Sadek City Model Town live in narrowly packed lines of rooms made of bamboo. They can get water from nearby tubewells and have electricity for…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

Rickshaw Walla

Dhaka -  Most male migrants who come into from villages have skills like farming…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

Lunchtime

Sao Paulo -  When I arrived in the neighborhood of “Bom Retiro” it was lunchtime. A good time to be there because I was not allowed to enter inside the stores, people didn’t…
Ines Correa – Migrationpapa

Matrasses for rent

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

Friendship

Dhaka -  “Beri Band” the embankment around Dhaka city, where a lot of migrants from the villages end up staying. The photograph of the two men might have sexual overtones in other…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

Changing

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

Rickshaw Wallah

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

Pit-bull rage

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