The Roffa 5314 project was commissioned by the Historical Museum of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The idea was to research and document youthculture on the southside of Rotterdam.

Many young people from the south side of Rotterdam identify with 'Roffa 5314'. 5314 is the code for Rotterdam's public transportation in that area and Roffa is slang for Rotterdam. (It also means 'tough' in Suriname)

Despite the multitude of different nationalities and lifestyles amongst these young people, they seem united by a love and pride for their neighbourhood.

To get a better understanding of the diversity of this current youthculture, several magazines were produced focussing on fashion and lifestyle. Music was also a common thread, most of the people I took photos of were busy as MC, rapper, producing beats etc..

On the next couple of pages I will show you some of the photos I took for this project. Some of them were used for the magazines, others were exhibited and a lot of the photos will be used as well for a book which will appear in 2010.

The Roffa project has been exhibitioned twice, from may 2008 until july 2009 at 'Het Gemaal' in Rotterdam and from july to september 2009 at 'A-Locatie', also in Rotterdam.


© MARC NOLTE

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