Participating Artists Press Agency
“Migrationpapa”
Friday 17th of July 2026 – page 5
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
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
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
Rotterdam -
At the hairdresser in Dordtselaan a poster is displayed. It says: ‘ I will act when I witness a violent situation in the street.'The poster was published by the…
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
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. It was created on…
Marcin Szczepanski –
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
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
Rotterdam -
Young Mr. Bhoendie has been working here for eleven years now. His father and mother bought this little restaurant fifteen years ago. His mother cooks Surinamese, Hindu, Chinese, Carribean and…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
Kadar moton ghumai literally translates to ‘sleeping like sand’. It is generally used for small children who drape themselves around their mother, sleeping as if the world didn’t exist. These…
Shahidul Alam –
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
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
Detroit -
A house in Mexican town, Southwest Detroit caught fire. Fires are daily occurrences in the city because of poverty, old electric wiring, insurance motivated arsons or lack of caution…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
A manifesto sign is on display at the entrance to the garden and orchard belonging to the Trumbull Plex, anarchist/artist community that has been established in two houses on Trumbull…
Marcin Szczepanski –
Migrationpapa
Detroit -
Magnificent mural was painted on the side of a Mexican food store Hacienda on West Vernor Highway in a neighborhood called Mexicantown in Southwest Detroit. Detroit is home to a…
Marcin Szczepanski –
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 -
Children need to become productive at a very early age and take on many adult roles. Every member of the family, beyond a certain age has to work to keep…
Shahidul Alam –
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
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
Rotterdam -
Ali Toptas tells me why there are no children in the play ground I saw the day before yesterday. There is a brand new play ground, also not far from…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Dhaka -
This little girl insisted on being photographed and took on poses commonly associated with pin up girls. “She’s always poses in front of mobile cameras†says her dad.…
Shahidul Alam –
Migrationpapa
Rotterdam -
‘It makes me happy to help others,’ Ali Toptas says, ‘I remember when my mother and brothers and sisters and me moved here, coming from Turkey, joining may father…
Nies Medema –
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
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
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