Steve Lazarides & Banksy: 10 FAQs Behind the Lens
Every great artist has a witness. For Banksy, that witness was Steve Lazarides. Long before the shredded canvas, the auction spectacles, or the million-pound headlines, there was a photographer from Newcastle with a Nikon slung over his shoulder and an instinct for the underground. Lazarides didn’t just take pictures; he became Banksy’s agent, fixer, and first chronicler the one tasked with capturing the art as it happened in the shadows where the art was made… back alleys, disused warehouses, and midnight walls.
What emerged from that unlikely partnership was more than documentation. It was a collaboration in myth-making. Banksy supplied the iconography, Lazarides the lens and the logistics. Together, they staged not only artworks but acts of cultural sabotage that became outlaw performance art.
This FAQ explores the story behind that alliance the questions collectors want to know. Ten points of entry into one of the most enigmatic relationships in contemporary art.
Q1.
What’s Lazarides’ photographic background before meeting Banksy?
Steve Lazarides grew up in Bristol and went on to study photography at Newcastle Polytechnic.
He was drawn early to underground subcultures: skate, rave, graffiti. As a student and young photographer, he shot with Nikon F-mount cameras, documenting youth movements and city life.
By the mid-1990s he was working for magazines like Sleazenation (becoming photography director by 1996) and The Face.
Steve Lazarides – Photo Op – available framed / unframed
Q2.
How and when did he first cross paths with Banksy?
The meeting with Banksy is dated to 1997, when Lazarides was tasked by Sleazenation to photograph a young stencil artist in Bristol. That shoot, partly portrait, partly street context, marks the formal beginning of their collaboration. Though Lazarides already had local graffiti networks via his hometown; he was able to navigate Bristol’s street art world and locate Banksy (or his circle) through those connections.
Steve Lazarides – St. Werburgh- available framed / unframed
Q3.
What camera(s) and gear did he use during the Banksy years?
No definitive public record names a specific model used exclusively for his Banksy archive work.
However: Early in his career he used Nikon F-mount film systems. The nature of his shoots, fast, nocturnal, guerrilla, implies he favoured robust, fast lenses (primes), high ISO film or faster film stocks, minimal setups, and gear that could survive inclement urban conditions.
Steve Lazarides – Ape Rule- available framed / unframed
Q4.
How extensive is the Lazarides / Banksy archive, and what’s in it?
Steve Lazarides claims to have amassed roughly 100,000 photographs overall, of which about 12,000 document Banksy’s works, process, and life.
In October 2024, Lazarides brought his Banksy archive to auction in Los Angeles under the title Under Duress: The Banksy Archive of Steve Lazarides.
A total of 173 lots were offered, featuring proof prints, stencils, conceptual sketches, personal memorabilia — and notably 15 burner phones that were used to coordinate clandestine communications between Banksy and Lazarides.
LOT 106: 15 cellphones (burner phones) used by Banksy’s manager, Steve Lazarides, to covertly contact Banksy when necessary. The brands include, Motorola, Sony, and Nokia. Image copyright Juliensauctions 2024
Q5.
What are some landmark moments (works, stunts) Lazarides is known to have documented?
There are so many shots of exciting stunts by Banksy captured in his two books, Captured Vol:1 and captured Vol:2. Two examples include Natural History Museum infiltration, 2004: an unauthorised installation inside the Natural History Museum in London. Plus Barely Legal, Los Angeles 2006: the high-profile US exhibition event. Lazarides provided documentary imagery of that moment.
Steve Lazarides – Unforgettable You- available framed / unframed
Q6.
Did Lazarides ever expose Banksy’s identity or come close?
No public confirmation exists that Lazarides ever revealed Banksy’s identity. In one interview, Lazarides said revealing would be “like telling a four-year-old Santa doesn’t exist.” He frames his archive not as a dossier but as a visual myth, capturing process, gesture, presence, not the full unmasking.
Steve Lazarides – Streets of Rage- available framed / unframed
Q7.
How and when did their working relationship end?
Their public association is generally understood to have wound down circa 2008–2009.
Lazarides has described the split as “unexplained.”
Steve Lazarides – Balloon Fight (Flight)- available framed / unframed
Q8.
What is the market/historic performance of Lazarides’ archive items?
In October 2024, Lazarides auctioned 173 lots via Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles, under the title Under Duress: The Banksy Archive of Steve Lazarides. The total hammer was ~US$1.4 million. One top lot: a proof print of Girl with Balloon (embossed “P.O.W.”) sold for ~$104,000. The auction included burner phones, stencils, proofs, sketches, artist ephemera …objects once used to clandestinely build a legend.
Steve Lazarides – How To Paint Graffiti & Get Away With It – available framed / unframed
Q9.
How does Lazarides reflect on his era with Banksy, in hindsight?
He describes it as a “full-tilt” emotional, creative, logistical undertaking, with both exhilaration and strain.
He has said he wants to step away from the weight of that archive and return to pure photography: “a large part of my life … whether I was working with him or not” is how he framed selling the archive.
Steve Lazarides- Balloon Fight on Wood Edition (Girl With Balloon)
Q10.
Why is the Lazarides archive culturally significant … beyond market value?
It is one of the most complete visual records of the formative years of one of the most enigmatic artists of our era. The archive provides documentation and performance: each photograph is both evidence and narrative.
Steve Lazarides – Balloon Fight (Flight)- available framed / unframed
Bonus Q
Do you want to capture history with Signed Limited Edition Prints from Steve Lazarides’ archive?
Official Steve Lazarides’ artworks are available to view in the gallery and via our online store. These signed prints, drawn from his decade alongside Banksy, offer a rare chance to engage with the visual record of street art’s most mythic figure. These rare prints are currently available framed and unframed.
Steve Lazarides – Inebriated Wisdom- available framed / unframed
In addition, a limited number of Signed paper editions of Banksy Captured Volumes 1 and 2 are also available via our gallery or online store. Together, they form both a personal memoir and an unprecedented chronicle, a window into the years when anonymity, subversion, and artistry collided on city walls and in the lens of a photographer who was there from the start.
Steve Lazarides – SIGNED Banksy Captured Vol. 1 & Vol. 2
Banksy Captured Volume 1 chronicles the early years and raw beginnings, while Volume 2 expands into the large-scale projects that shook the art world. Together, they form an unparalleled archive, essential for collectors, street art fans, and anyone fascinated by the mystery of Banksy.
Explore the Full Steve Lazarides Collection
Limited Edition Prints. Signed Books. Rare moments captured. Own your piece of history today.
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