This Is Not a Photo Opportunity is a street-level, full-color showcase of some of Banksy’s most innovative pieces ever. Banksy, Britain’s now-legendary “guerilla” street artist, has painted the walls, streets, and bridges of towns and cities throughout the world. Once viewed as vandalism, Banksy’s work is now venerated, collected, and preserved. Over the course of a decade, Martin Bull has documented dozens of the most important and impressive works by the legendary political artist, most of which are no longer in existence. "For Banksy fans in the know this compact pictorial journey is distinctly delicious, a banquet of roaring images that span the early freehand technique of the 1990s to the more current stencils. These works scream clever, artistic, humorous, ironic, and socially relevant." —Rhonda Sturtz,  NY Journal of Books "Readers who have watched Exit Through the Gift Shop will discover this book provides additional perspectives on the work of the venerated artist. Students of graphic design will also find the composition of these pieces refreshing." —Rachael Dreyer,  Library Journal Martin Bull is a London-based photographer, fan, curator, and promoter of street art. He has one of the most comprehensive collections of photographs of Banksy’s work from around the UK. His previous books include Banksy Locations & Tours, Volumes 1 and 2 . This Is Not a Photo Opportunity The Street Art of Banksy By Martin Bull PM Press Copyright © 2015 Martin Bull All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-62963-036-6 Contents INTRODUCTION, THE ROOTS OF BANKSY, THE ART OF THE RAT, THE KEY TO MAKING GREAT SLOGANS IS ..., MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?, IF GRAFFITI CHANGED ANYTHING, IT WOULD BE ILLEGAL, TAKE THIS — SOCIETY!, CAUTION — BANKSY AT PLAY, BY ORDER — NO BALL GAMES, WHEN THE TIME COMES TO LEAVE, JUST WALK AWAY QUIETLY AND DON'T MAKE ANY FUSS, PHOTO INFO/CREDITS, CHAPTER 1 THE ROOTS OF BANKSY Everyone has to start somewhere. For Banksy it was in the burgeoning 1990s free party, DIY (do it yourself), and alternative music scene in Bristol, a vibrant, creative, multicultural city in the West of England. Think of the music of Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Smith & Mighty, and Roni Size, and the art of 3D and Nick Walker. Even Damien Hirst comes from Bristol! This section shows some of Banksy's early work in Bristol, mainly in the late 1990s, before he left for London around the end of 2000. It is in a rough chronological order, and nearly all of it is freehand work, although some, like Visual Warfare (with Kato), suggest that the neat lines and organised nature of his work mean he was never really cut out to be an expansive traditional graffiti writer. Funnily enough the "earliest" piece I have a photo of (Kids with Guns on page 9 ) is actually a very basic stencil, with a name tag that uses a different font to the one he later became instantly recognisable for. Later you see this new "Banksy" signature creeping into his work: a stencil amidst the freehand. That is quite unusual, actually, as most writers would prefer the freedom of a cool, free-flowing moniker. It also suggests that these early pieces, including parts in several murals with his mates in the Dry Breadz and Bad Applz writing crews, were on legal walls, as no self-respecting writer would want to suffer the ignominy of being caught with a stencil of your own name! CHAPTER 2 THE ART OF THE RAT After one "last hurrah" in Bristol, his first solo exhibition at the Severnshed in early 2000, Mr. B decides this town ain't big enough and heads for London. The freehand is dropped, although it does come in very useful when perfecting his later street pieces, and his studio work consistently reminds us he actually has a very talented hand. The stencils are therefore purely for maximum street effect. Just like a traditional "bomber" will spray his tag like a dog in heat — marking his (or her) territory and his contempt of being told that most of the space around him is "owned" by others — Banksy sets about bombarding London with his new muse, the lowly rat. Easy to spray and easy to get away with. Nearly all of Banksy's vermin in this special section are hard to put an exact date on, but for most it is fair to assume they were done between 2001 and 2004. At first glance it may seem like these rats are overly repetitive and lacking in inventiveness, but if you look closer there are 24 clearly different styles of rats just in this section alone, and I only started taking photos of his surviving street pieces in late 2005! Comparisons to Blek Le Rat's lone little rat are therefore quite futile, and anyway by 2004 there is a progression to the massive rats in London and Liverpool ( pages 24 and 55 ). Rats are assumed to represent the urban underclass. Banksy himself also relates a typically self-effacing story that after several years of doing these rats someone remarks how clever it is that he chose