The Street Studios Project

In March 2011 photographer Alexia Webster created the first 'Street Studio' in Woodstock, Cape Town, and since then has set up free outdoor photographic studios on 15 street corners and public spaces around the world, in communities facing insecurity, poverty or upheaval. The Street Studio project builds simple outdoor photo studio sets and invites any passing families and individuals to pose for a portrait. The photos are then printed on site for free for the participant to take home with them for their family album. Part public, part private, these street studio portraits blend the inside and outside world. From the streets of informal settlements in Cape Town, to refugee camps in the DR Congo and South Sudan, a working rock quarry in Madagascar and neighbourhoods in Dharavi in Mumbai, India, the studios, which are both communal and very intimate, are set up in spaces of uncertainty and transience with the hope that a family photograph can help build a sense of identity and belonging. The Street Studio space is both a participatory art show as well as a communal gathering space where community members reconnect and share stories and experiences.