• Carlos Granés.Banksy stops playing with fire
  • Last action.Banksy installs a birth in Bethlehem in which the star is a hole in the West Bank wall

A fluorescent vest and traffic cones. It is all that Banksy has needed over 20 years to mark his territory and leave his indelible stamp on the walls. "With the vest and the cones you can do what you want, everyone assumes that you have permission and do not raise suspicions."

This is told by Steve Lazarides, the photographer who was the shadow of Banksy for a long decade and who also served as an agent, watchman and accomplice in the night expeditions ... «Only once were they about to stop us: it was in New York, in the Meat District, before it became fashionable. The transsexuals who work there at night thought he was doing a homophobic graffiti to intimidate them and called the police. They lacked little to catch us ».

Lazarides has just published Banksy captured , a book of photographs - many of them unpublished - that "capture" the artist in action, almost always on his back. Sometimes in front and with a pixelated face. Occasionally dressed in a white jumpsuit, spreading the templates on the floor or sticking them to the wall as if they had always been part of the urban landscape .

The photographer and the artist interrupted their relationship in 2008. « I am bipolar and he is obsessive . We got together as far as we could, ”explains Lazarides. "We keep in touch by email and of course I had his approval to capture him in a book."

The photographer dived in a background of 12,000 snapshots, almost all of the analog era. The 250-page book is surely the greatest possible approach to the artist in action, although without deciphering the enigma of his identity . The initial circulation of 5,000 copies sold out in a matter of minutes; Some copies are already sold on eBay for 700 euros. The images can be purchased in limited edition through the banksycaptures.com website, at 530 euros the unit.

Lazarides began his first steps as a photographer documenting the subcultures and the British underground scene. It was like that, in 1997, how he got to Banksy on behalf of the magazine Sleaze Nation. We connect mentally because I am also from Bristol and I grew up in graffiti, ”Lazarides reminds The Guardian . "Then it was the art of the dispossessed, of those who never received a private education or stepped on a gallery."

Interestingly, the photographer opened his own gallery in London, Lazinc, specializing in street artists such as Invader, JR, Vhils or The Miaz Brother. After two years, he decided however to close: « Deep down, I hate the world of art . I ended up being part of it because Bansky catapulted street art to the stratosphere. It was a good experience for a while, but I'm glad to leave that stage behind and I'm ready for the next one.

Lazarides affectionately calls his former partner Matey Boy, but refuses to identify him or give clues. About the identity of Banksy, almost another book could be written. Is Robin Gunningham really called? Is it Robert del Naja, from the Massive Attack group? Or maybe Jamie Hewlett, the illustrator and co-founder of Gorillaz?

«I will never say who it is. It would be like telling a four-year-old boy that Santa Claus doesn't exist, ”warns the photographer. «And if he himself said who he is, nobody would believe him. People would think: "Okay, uncle, okay" ».

Banksy captured reveals the artist's "formative" years, before his jump "to fame and infamy," including Christmas in which they decided to rent an old porn shop in Soho and turn it into an anti-Christmas plea, with a Santa Claus hanged next to the claim: "Reject all icons." Inside the shop renamed Santa's Ghetto, small reproductions of Banksy could be purchased for 28 euros . One of the works of that time, Bomb Middle England, came to be sold at an auction at Sotheby's for the equivalent of 115,000 euros 20 years later.

"Banksy is not really anti-capitalist," says Lazarides, "but his social and political criticism is there from day one. And what makes him the greatest is that he is immediately recognizable. Forget about Andy Warhol , forget about everyone else, except maybe Rembrandt and Van Gogh. We are facing a genius ».

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • art
  • culture
  • United Kingdom

Cinemy Irons: "Now it would be impossible to make the best films of my career"

Art Recognizing their creativity, they saw what they were capable of

Culture A painting by Emiliano Zapata naked, with heels and feminine features, unleashes the controversy in Mexico