Itinerant photographers were an accepted part of English street life in the latter part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th centuries. Part of the Victorian floating world of peddlers, tinkers and travelling entertainers, their sitters were frequently photographed in temporary, makeshift studios that were set up in a variety of places and at numerous social and cultural events.

From ‘***Jason Wilde’s Free Portrait Studio***’ by Jason Wilde

My initial attempts at emulating these early travelling portrait photographers with my Free Portrait Studio were farcical. I started out making images along the south coast of England setting up my equipment outdoors where I would be highly visible but not present an obstacle. I would then ask passers by to take time out from what they were doing and have their portrait taken.

Putting aside sceptical policemen, bewildered street wardens, comedic drunks and talkative pensioners, my main enemy was the wind. On more than one occasion I ended up either chasing or wrestling my 9ft x 9ft collapsible background along the promenades of towns that included Hastings, Martgate and Whitstable. The weather meant a project rethink and all subsequent JWFPS events were held indoors

Jason Wilde’s Free Portrait Studio is a non-commercial mobile studio that follows in the footsteps of the early itinerant photographers. Visiting a variety of venues in and around the London Borough of Camden JWFPS invited visitors and passers by to take part in a short informal photography process.

Equal parts English history, cultural anthropology and human narrative, the photographs avoid the overtly conceptual motifs of much contemporary portraiture in favour of the descriptive powers of the medium. This on-going body of work aims to reflect the complex nature of contemporary English society through multiple individual portraits.

Jason’s documentary work can be seen here

Itinerant Photographers

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