“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

Street Art part2

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

Words and public space 2

Rotterdam -  This may be the weirdest sign I have ever seen in our Rotterdam ‘Attempts to regulate with written words-collection’ so far. It is put on a window of an empty…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

Rickshaw Walla

Dhaka -  Most male migrants who come into from villages have skills like farming…
Shahidul Alam – Migrationpapa

City art 1

Rotterdam -  In the harbour (Maashaven) someone felt the need to make art on this metal door.…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

Black middle class

Detroit -  Adris Nia, 60, grew up in Detroit. His parents moved here from the south of the US to take government positions in the first half of the 20th century. They…
Marcin Szczepanski – Migrationpapa

City art 2

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

Volunteer work 2

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

Almost captain

Rotterdam -  Young skippers are trained in Maashaven. Lars de la Rie (one more week of school to go before he will be inland skipper) told me he was born only 5…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

HEIDELBERG PROJECT

Detroit -  A dead tree is covered with teddy bears and topped with shopping carts (used by the homeless in the city). The Heidelberg Project was created in 1986 by artist Tyree…
Marcin Szczepanski – Migrationpapa

Detroit Lives!

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

Roads2

Detroit -  Two men who migrated to the city from Kentucky in 1950s work on an old truck that belongs to the one on the right. They stayed behind when most of…
Marcin Szczepanski – Migrationpapa

Mexicantown 2

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

Micro -entrepreneurship

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

cityscape 2

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

Mexicantown

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

Once a stable street

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

Volunteer

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

Mexicantown 1

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

Pimp your car

Rotterdam -  Many people in Tarwewijk who used to work in the harbour and factories are jobless today. The new job market is in hairdo (African, Asian, Western), international telephone booths, small…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

Young entrepreneur

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

Together 1

Rotterdam -  To my surprise, the Chinese poet Bei Dao (now living in Danmark, is quoted on a garbage truck. It says: ‘ The source dries out, the fire rages, the road…
Nies Medema – Migrationpapa

Together 2

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

tradition 2

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

Harbour

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