We move through people every day without really seeing them. It’s a strange habit, how easily faces blur into the background and how quickly moments pass without leaving a trace. So when the session opened with a simple question, “Can you recall even one face from the last busy street you walked through?”, it didn’t feel simple anymore. It felt personal. That pause, that hesitation, became the entry point into Not an Extra, a walkthrough that didn’t just present an exhibition

There is a phrase Portia Roy uses to describe herself: "a stray dog on the streets of India." It is not self-pity. It is a way of saying she has made a choice, to stay close to the people who are overlooked, who move through cities and systems without anyone stopping to ask about them. Her work grows from that closeness. Not from research or planning, but from paying attention. From images that find her in everyday life and refuse to leave until she has done something with th