The New Yorker Helps Unveil BANKSY: The Not-So-Invisible Man of Graffiti

If you’ve ever wondered what stencil painting graffiti cult hero BANKSY looks like, well here he is was*. Before you heap on the hate mail and claim Complex is droppin’ dimes, let it be know that this picture was published in The Evening Standard back in 2004 and has been floating around Jamaican photographer Peter Dean Rickard’s site, The Afflicted Yard for just as long, he sold them the photo after all. Even the Wooster Collective reported on the work of Peter Dean but became conflicted and eventually succumbed to the pressures of the ‘Stencil Lobby’ and pulled the post, a first in Wooster’s history. Amazingly, even with all the onslaught of press and intense media spotlight that BANKSY has especially received in the past few years and all, not one reporter has referenced even the existence of these photos until now (except for Vice, they showed a little thumbnail back in December 2006, but do they really count?). Today, The New Yorker magazine published an extensive 6000 word article on the not so elusive guerrilla artist. It was mainly a rehashing of all his major pranks and installations in the past few years. But the reporter did provide this gem that led to us easily finding the photo above:

When I arrived in London, in March, my only clue to who Banksy might be was a series of pictures, posted on the Internet in 2004, by a Jamaican photographer named Peter Dean Rickards. That year, so the story goes, Banksy flew to Kingston to work on a project. He visited the reggae singer Buju Banton, at his studio, and Rickards documented the occasion. Eventually, he became disgruntled. “Banksy swanned around Jamaica as if he owned the place,” he told the Evening Standard, to which he sold the images. “He's too much of a pussy to protest having his picture taken once he found himself in Kingston, Jamaica'nowhere near the nice, safe media offices . . . that he's accustomed to,” he wrote on his Web site, in a rant that accompanied the pictures, which have since been removed.

So we did some poking around, and contrary to what the reporter reported, the photos have not been removed and sure enough they’re right on the Afflicted Yard’s front lawn, or well, at least in these web.archive url’s. Hey kids, it was bound to happen sometime. Sure it hurts like the first time you were told Santa Claus ain’t real, but you made it over that hump, trust us, you’ll make it over this one too. See more BANKSY after the jump or head over to The Afflicted Yard for the full gambit.

*Update: Cranky barristers from the law firm of Finers Stephens Innocent sent Complex a cease and desist order for the BANKSY photos. But we’ve got our legal eagles on the job. Stay tuned

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