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I
t’s probably safe to say there aren’t many
professional breakdancers who can claim to
have studied Biology at Oxford University.
Fewer still who have a PhD in Evolutionary
Mathematics fromCambridge. Yet Dr Lee Bofkin’s
current day job is evenmore surprising. “I spend a
lot of time under bridges and in abandoned
buildings, getting chased by security guards and
stray dogs,” says Bofkin. “Once I was chased by
two dogs in a crack den, with soiledmattresses and
filth everywhere. Rather than run, I barked bigger
and louder, and, luckily, they ran away.”
This isn’t a hard luck story, however. The 31-year-
old wants to be the world’s most prolific
photographer of street art – and he’s prepared to
suffer for it. In the past seven years he’s travelled
the world, risking life and limb to shoot murals on
walls, stencils on trains and even entire high-rise
buildings that have become canvasses. So far, he’s
recordedmore than 60,000 images, which are now
available on his website,
globalstreetart.com
.
It has taken time, and it hasn’t been easy. “Some of
the best art in the world is hidden frompublic view,
which can be dangerous,” he says. “But the risks
I take to get the photos pale in comparison with
the risks taken by the artists.”
It’s only in the past decade that graffiti has made
the surprisingmove out of magistrates’ courts and
into galleries, makingmillionaires of artists such
as Banksy and spawning a new type of tourism that
sees visitors searching out the best urban works in
cities such as London, Paris and Berlin. Bofkin’s
rise as the genre’s most prolific chronicler was
equally unpredictable. He grew up in a village in
Hertfordshire, before heading toOxford. While
studying, he started to dance, and soon he was
travelling as part of the UK’s breakdancing team. It
was during this period that he had his first
meaningful graffiti experience.
“In 2001 I was dancing in Barcelona,” Bofkin
says, “and the city centre was covered in incredible
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“This is inHamburg,
Germany, by a
German guy calledDaim.
Hewas a pioneer of 3D
graffiti – a lot of his pieces
had shape, structure and
dimension, even though
theywere onwalls. He’s
nowa successful
contemporary artist,
working both in galleries
and outside. This piece
was near a business park
on a block of derelict land.
I had to sneak in to take it,
but it’s an amazing piece.”
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“This is inValencia,
Spain – I spent a long
weekend running around
the city, which has a
first-rate graffiti scene.
All the neighbourhoods
have their own flavours
and styles, while the city
centre hasmore
illustrative street art,
which suits the oldwalls.
This was by aman called
Escif. I have no ideawhat
he’s trying to say, but it’s
all about the fine detail.”
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“This is a runner – a
piece running on a
train – that I took inRome.
It was virtually impossible
to get pictures of train
graffiti there because of
tight angles and the police
– the cops tried to take
my camera, but letme go
when I played the ignorant
tourist role. I eventually
found a university that
backed on to the tracks
and pretended to be a
student. Agood train
image is worth a lot to
a graffiti photographer.”
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TRAVELLER