Projects (Cities)
Lucy Groenewoud approached Café Art in early 2018 with the plan to do the Brighton & Hove project. With cameras provided by Fujifilm we ran the MyBrighton & Hove project with 100 cameras in 2018. Following a successful Kickstarter we printed the 2019 MyBrighton & Hove calendar. Lucy then set up the MyBrighton & Hove photography mentoring group.
MyLondon started in 2013 when Paul Ryan and Michael Wong, founders of Cafe Art, partnered with volunteers from the Royal Photographic Society and handed out 100 Fujifilm QuickSnap cameras at St Paul's Cathedral, London. The exhibition was in Spitalfields Market and they launched the first MyLondon calendar. Since then the project has inspired others projects.
MyToronto started in 2017 and is run by Ve'ahavta, a social services organisation providing programmes for people affected by homelessness to prepare for the workplace. MyToronto developed a contest app in 2020 and distributed smartphones as cameras for the 2020 contest in a effort to infuse digital literacy into the programme.
MyNew Orleans was set up in 2016 and they have created four exhibitions and calendars. In 2018 New Orleans photographer Hope Magraff exhibited with other MyWorld photographers at the United Nations in Geneva and her photograph Iron Horse Bus featured in the promotion of the event which marked World Habitat Day and focused on housing for women.
Since 2015 Michael Allwright has run five MySydney competitions and produced five calendars. His organisation is Homeless in Focus. They ran a pilot project handing out Fijifilm Quicksnap cameras to aboriginal youth in Alice Springs in 2018. In October 2020 Picturing Home, a documentary featuring one of their participants Jai, was launched.
MyBudapest is run by Budapest Bike Maffia (BBM) who run several projects to feed homeless people in Budapest. Twice a week they cycle around the city giving out packaged sandwiches. They have also set up a successful school programme to collect sandwiches from children whose families make an extra sandwich to give to homeless people. They started MyBudapest in 2016.
MinhaSão Paulo was run by Cafe Art with the support of People's Palace Projects and With One Voice and the São Paulo municipal government in November 2015. The photos from São Paulo are reproduced with the permission of People's Palace Projects.
MyMumbai was run by Pehchan in September 2023. Pehchan means "identity" in Hindi and they help street homeless families obtain ID cards and bank accounts.