Participating Artists Press Agency
“Migrationpapa”
Tuesday 14th of April 2026 – page 4
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
Lagos -
Men from western Nigeria reading newpapers at one of the rice stores at the Iddo terminus market. The market is popular for transtional trading. This has made it a hub…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
A Latino man talks on the phone while looking at the house of his sister in Mexicantown that is engulfed in flames. Fires are daily occurrences in the city due…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
The barber uses two small generators to ensure his business goes uninterrupted by power failures. Generators are one of Nigeria’s main exports. Despite the government’s failure to assure electricity, users…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
A mobile herbal medicine products at Obalende, Lagos- a migrant community area of Lagos. For those who cannot afford going to the orthodox medical care herbal medince is fast becoming…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
The owners of the rickshaw garage are often themselves former rickshaw pullers. These owners are migrants too. Rickshaws often get stolen. They are also taken away by local protection rackets…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
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
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
Detroit -
It’s 10 a.m. and Michigan Ave. is almost empty. Michigan Ave. is one of the main streets in Detroit. It was built to accommodate several lanes of traffic going…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
A pendant of one of the gamblers who told to me that daily betting has brought some improvement to his financial situation. He even boasted he bought his pendant from…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
A barbers at the Iddo Terminus. Barbing is a job common among newcomers to the city. With little investment and less skill the business goes on.…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
View on Tarwewijk, the old grain warehouse. Tarwewijk in Rotterdam was built for dockers, sailors, workers and their families. Some of them still come to the harbour every day. ‘In…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
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
Dhaka -
Much of the land on either side of the Beri Bandh embankment used to be a swamp, and most homes are built on stilts. The refuse from nearby tanneries and…
Shahidul Alam –
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
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
Rotterdam -
Traditional Dutch churches and believers are becoming extinct species. This is a spire of a former reformed church in Tarwewijk. It is now the home of a church called Victory…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
Rickshaw wallas are very proud of their rickshaws and most rickshaws are brightly decorated. But with times getting more difficult, there are fewer adornments, and hand painted decorations are being…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
Cart pusher moving tones of goods from the Iddo terminus market. The market is popular for transitional trading. This has made it a hub for many new comers in Lagos…
Andrew Esiebo –
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
Lagos -
During my WildWalk, while attempting to walk through this space I was stopped and warned not to pass through it, as it is a sleeping space for some homeless people…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
The corner shop sells pretty much anything you might need on a daily basis. It is also a tea shop. However, to do business you need more, so all the…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
As children we used to talk about Italian Saloons (‘It’ is a brick in Bangla, so these were saloons where you sat on roadside bricks). We also had Mongolian Saloons…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
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
Dhaka -
Most male migrants who come into from villages have skills like farming and fishing, which are not useful in the city. They initially work as rickshaw drivers or labourers. Rickshaw…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa