by Editor Colin Dixon
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 27th of June 2025

'Graffiti walk' by Leif Løndal

Graffiti is writing or drawings on walls or other surfaces, usually without permission and within public view. 
Graffiti has been around since ancient times with many examples from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and the Roman empire.

Modern graffiti has been a controversial subject.  Many consider it as vandalism but graffiti (Street Art) is now becoming more accepted around the world, especially since the 1980’s with the arrival of artists like Banksy.  Street artists like Banksy have become extremely famous and their work sells for large sums of money in auctions.  For example, the Mona Lisa by Banksy with paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 in December 2006.  But this was only the beginning. Many pieces of Banksy’s work have been sold for large amounts - for example, “Fragile silence” where Banksy painted on the side of mobile (Trailer) home during the 1998 Glastonbury Festival. The trailer was bought by a couple in 1997 for £1000 and after the graffiti was added, sold in 2015 in an auction in Paris for £445,792.

As he was based in Bristol in his early years, a lot of his street art can be seen around the city. This has meant that Bristol has proudly become the “City of Street Art” in the UK. Now his work is also appearing around the world. In November 2022 he posted on social media that there were some of his pictures on damaged buildings in Ukraine following his visit there.  After the Russian invasion six murals appeared around the country. One of these images, The Judo Competition, has now been put on a stamp in Ukraine.

 So, in a short period of time, we have gone from what was perceived as vandalism, drawings and words on train buildings and bridges for example, to the wonderful art we can now see created in our cities.

As photographers we can use these works of art in our own work - below are some examples from 1x.

'the bridge' by fotomarion

'peace please' by Roswitha Schleicher – Schwarz

'Graffiti I' by DDiArte

'39' by Alper Hasan ÜKE

'graffiti; un ragazzo che guida la moto' by Enrico Davide Poletto

'Smile Please' by Anthony Bates

'Invisible Man in a Fluorescent Suit' by VitaminB

'About the Age of Steam' by Tom Gore

N/T by Bayu Perwiranegara

'Curious' by Andy Bauer

'Evolution' by Tatsuo Suzuki

'Broken Window' by Stefan Eisele