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graffiti. The volume and the quality of the work just
blewme away. In 2004 I went back, expecting this
beautiful graffiti, but the local authority had done
a whitewash campaign. I was gutted. It then hit
home how transient street art is – and I thought it
was important to preserve it.”
Bofkin started to take pictures in 2005, while
travelling with his breakdancing crew. But failure
to recover froma knee injury eventually forced him
to quit dancing in 2007, and a couple of years later
he was hit bymore bad news when he was made
redundant fromhis job as amarket analyst.
Come 2010, however, Bofkin was in Spain,
with a new job at a start-up insurance firmand
6,000 graffiti photographs under his belt. Then
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“This is a stencil by
Banksy – themost
famous street artist – and
it probably lasted a day
or two atmost. It was in
a graffiti tunnel called
Leake Street, which is right
by London’sWaterloo
station. A fewyears ago
this was the site of a street
art festival organised by
Banksy, and since then
it has been a fairly large
legal wall [where artists
are permitted to paint].
I visit regularly because of
the high turnover of work.”
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