Participating Artists Press Agency
“Migrationpapa”
Friday 11th of July 2025 – 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
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
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
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
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
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
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 -
Two balconies in pensioners home ‘ Harmonie’ (Harmony). One with a Dutch flag, the other with a satellite dish, allowing her to watch TV shows from all over the world…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
A man moving bag of rice as kegs of palm oil waits buyers across the country and beyond at at the Iddo terminus market. The market is popular for transtional…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
Young boys sitting on of the many commercial motor bikes also known as Okada became visible on the road in Lagos as community transportation has now come to be one…
Andrew Esiebo –
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
Lagos -
With a big umbrella, the cheapest phone of less than 10 dollars many new comers make their daily living through the Mobile Telephone booth popularly known as Payphone that dots…
Andrew Esiebo –
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
Detroit -
Alex Martinez shows off one of his roosters in the living room of his Southwest Detroit house. Martinez grew up on a farm in Mexico and tries to hold on…
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
Dhaka -
The ‘services’ required by the community include entertainment and medical support. The snake charmer provides both. While people like to watch the dance of the snakes, the charmer, Lokman also…
Shahidul Alam –
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
Rotterdam -
This is one of many money transfer shops in Tarwewijk. Since many Tarwewijkers want to send money home to their family, this is the perfect neighborhood to start a business…
Nies Medema –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
A young migrant from northern Nigeria hanging around in heavy traffic in Lagos to clean dirty windows for cash. In less than one hour he earns as much a 50…
Andrew Esiebo –
Migrationpapa
Sao Paulo -
A neighborhood where there are brazilian magazines like “Caras", that means “Face" and Korean newspapers “working†together.…
Ines Correa –
Migrationpapa
Lagos -
Woman from eastern in front of her store where she sells stockfish a.k.aOporoko at the Iddo terminus market. The market is popular for transtional trading. This has made…
Andrew Esiebo –
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
Dhaka -
A rickshaw walla with his baby girl. While it is difficult to make ends meet with what one earns pulling a rickshaw. Once children are born, it becomes more difficult…
Shahidul Alam –
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
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