“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

Faith as strategy for survival

Lagos -  Multitude of people during the prayers session of the Mountain of Fire and Miracle church (MFM) , in their annual spiritual deliverance and miracle service. In Nigeria, means for daily living…
Andrew Esiebo – Migrationpapa

A tailoring apprentice

Lagos -  A taloring apprentice who recently migrated from the nothern Nigeria to Lagos sewing cloth at the Iddo terminus market. The market is popular for transtional trading. This has made it…
Andrew Esiebo – 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

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

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

Gasfire

Dhaka -  Gas fire: Throughout Bangladesh is the ubiquitous tea stall selling sweet thick tea. This is where politics, love and the ways of the world are discussed. The fire under a…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

OK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Waiting wheelbarrow

Lagos -  Waiting wheelbarrow use for moving things for money at the Iddo terminus market. The market is popular for transtional trading. This has made it a hub for many new comers…
Andrew Esiebo – 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

Inside

Detroit -  Inside of a burned down house on Michigan Ave. in Detroit. Michigan Ave. used to be one of the most commercially viable parts of the city due to a large…
Marcin Szczepanski – 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

Urban Farming 1

Detroit -  Son 5, and his mom, 24 visit chickens at a community garden off Martin Luther King and Trumbull in Detroit. One third of the Detroit land sits empty and possibilities…
Marcin Szczepanski – 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

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

Young people 1

Rotterdam -  It’s 1 pm. Three young people hanging around the afro-cosmetics-wig-international phonecall-shop. The boy with the leather jacket is complaining about something. It’s not clear what bothers him. Life in general…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

a€œIt dona€™t exista€

Detroit -  Someone wrote that slogan on several burned out houses on Michigan Avenue in Detroit. Since the last factory shut down in the 1990s, most of the remaining residents moved out…
Marcin Szczepanski – Migrationpapa

scrap metal

Rotterdam -  A man transports scrap metal with his ship from one harbour to another. He says his hands are resistant to poison and acid. His ships’ name is De Volharding (Perseverance)…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa