“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

City art 2

Rotterdam -  After the houses on this corner were demolished, these colorful faces appeared, painted on a mobile home in a garden. How did they ever get that caravan in this garden…
Nies Medema – 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

Young people 2

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

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

Readings

Sao Paulo -  A neighborhood where there are brazilian magazines like “Caras", that means “Face" and Korean newspapers “working” together.…
Ines Correa – 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

City art 1

Rotterdam -  In the harbour (Maashaven) someone felt the need to make art on this metal door.…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

scrap metal 1

Rotterdam -  The Tarwewijk Rotterdam. A man transports scrap metal with his ship from one harbor to another. His hands are poison and acid resistant, he says. …
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

The Tarwewijk.

Rotterdam -  The Tarwewijk from the Art Hotel where I checked in for two days. In old days the men of the Tarwewijk worked in the harbour, which you see here on…
Lino Hellings – Migrationpapa

tradition 2

Rotterdam -  Two towers on a 200 square meter play ground. It’s 4 pm, there is not one child playing. In Dutch cities, there are many of these so called Playground Associations…
Nies Medema – 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

Rice loaders

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

okra from Kenia and Surinam

Rotterdam -  Due to floods in Pakistan, the okra in the grocery store of the Sheikh family is now imported from Kenia and Surinam.…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

Resistance

Sao Paulo -  There is a fight in central São Paulo for the right to remain living there. The big companies want to ‘revitalise’, in other words, buy the buildings for ridiculously low…
Ines Correa – Migrationpapa

Remove

Sao Paulo -  This is Maria Moura. She is 44. She came to Sao Paulo in 1982 from Bahia. She has 8 children and 3 grandchildren.Her oldest daughter is in jail. Maria…
Ines Correa – Migrationpapa

Micro -entrepreneurship

Rotterdam -  Minja Schotel is an artist and researcher. In Tarwewijk she does research on micro-entrepreneurship. She has found 21 men and women so far who have or would like to have…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

Where are?

Sao Paulo -  Bolivians or not? It is dificult to know. They don’t want to talk about theyr activities and where they are going to, where they live or work. In this photo…
Ines Correa – Migrationpapa

Business of legiums

Lagos -  A young boy who recently migrated from the nothern Nigeria to Lagos is assisting and learning the business of legiums at the Iddo terminus market. The market is popular for…
Andrew Esiebo – 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

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

Michigan Ave.

Detroit -  Burn down facades of front stores line up parts of Michigan Ave. in Detroit, they share the street with strip clubs, Mexican grocery joints and used furniture stores. Michigan Ave…
Marcin Szczepanski – Migrationpapa

Harbour

Rotterdam -  Some grain ware houses have been renovated and are used as discotheques or apartment buildings now, this one in Maashaven is still functioning.…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa