Participating Artists Press Agency
“Migrationpapa”
Saturday 15th of November 2025 – page 2
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
Sao Paulo -
Apart from migration from other countries that happen here for years, the city of Sao Paulo has migratory people from the north and northeast of the country seeking work. Many…
Ines Correa –
Migrationpapa
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
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
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
Lagos -
Andrew Peji, arrived Lagos twenty years ago from Republic of Benin as a cook for the Military in Nigeria. Currently secretary of the Union of the commercial Tricycle motor bike…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
Empty houses have been turned into art installations. Heidelberg Project is the most well known example of urban art in Detroit inspired by socio-economic issues prevalent in the city. A…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
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
Lagos -
Aliyu Lawal arrived Lagos from Katsina two years ago. He got movitated to come to Lagos having seen many of his family members doing business in Lagos. When he attempted…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
Most people have a ‘tabiz’. They are usually small pieces of paper with writings from the Qur’an, packed in little tubes or small caskets. They are often tied around the…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
An abandoned building on Chene St. in Detroit has been turned into an urban canvas by an artist. The painting presents cartoon characters engaged in violence and drugs. It was…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
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
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
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 -
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
Dhaka -
Dhaka Bangladesh â€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
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
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
Rotterdam -
Sanne Luijben graduated from art school in 2009. From the south she moved to Tarwewijk. Sanne likes Tarwewijk because of its international atmosphere. Houses are cheap too. She recently had…
Nies Medema –
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 -
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
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
Rotterdam -
While focusing on migration, entrepreneurship, violence, volunteer work, churches and welfare, I almost forgot to share the great views one has in this neighborhood. Rotterdam is a port, and as…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Sao Paulo -
This image was made in the center of Sao Paulo City. In the same region where the Terminal Bus Station was and where the korean people worked. We can see…
Ines Correa –
Migrationpapa
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