Creating files and directories via Python

import os

path = chap_name

if not os.path.exists(path):
    os.makedirs(path)

filename = img_alt + '.jpg'
with open(os.path.join(path, filename), 'wb') as temp_file:
    temp_file.write(buff)

Key point is to use os.makedirs in place of os.mkdir. It is recursive, i.e. it generates all intermediate directories. See http://docs.python.org/library/os.html

Open the file in binary mode as you are storing binary (jpeg) data.

In response to Edit 2, if img_alt sometimes has ‘/’ in it:

img_alt = os.path.basename(img_alt)