St. Werburgh

In St. Werburgh, Steve Lazarides captures a figure shielding their identity with a sprayed wooden plank, a photograph that plays directly into the mythology surrounding Banksy. Is it Banksy? or not? The image encapsulates the themes of secrecy, subversion, and performance that define his practice.

As Banksy’s original photographer, agent, and close collaborator, Lazarides had unique access to these moments of creative spontaneity. Between 1997 and 2008, he amassed an archive of more than 12,000 images of Banksy, creating rare records of the cultural force taking shape on the streets.

St. Werburgh exemplifies Lazarides’s role as chronicler of this movement, offering collectors not just a document of street art’s rise, but a photograph that embodies its central mystery: the blurred line between artist, artwork, and anonymity.