Is there a law against taking pictures of graffiti and street art? The question crossed my mind when two police officers approached me on a street in Bristol, England, and asked me what I was photographing.

Click here to see the graffiti >

"Graffiti," I said, pointing out the figure. "It's a little vampire."

The tiny artwork had been painted next to a side entrance of their police station in a rather daring move on the part of the artist. I hadn't noticed exactly what the building was before I started snapping. But the police didn't seem to mind the cute little fangster. In fact, they admired him with me.

"So is graffiti legal in Bristol now?" I asked.

They both had a good laugh, which answered my question.

"Banksy is from Bristol. His name is Robert," one of the officers said.

I think he might have meant Robin. There have been reports in the British press identifying the anonymous Banksy, the world's most famous street artist, as one Robin Gunningham. But maybe this officer knew something this reporter didn't.

I wasn't visiting Bristol to uncover Banksy's identity. I was there to see graffiti and street art. And there was plenty to admire in the port city of nearly half-a-million people an hour-and-a-half west of London. Banksy got his start in Bristol in the early 1990s, and now the city is internationally known for its graffiti and street art scene. 

I arrived a couple of weeks after See No Evil, the August 2011 festival that was billed as one of the world's largest outdoor art projects. With the blessing of local authorities, artists from all over the world were invited to descend upon central Bristol's Nelson Street to paint the exteriors of ten buildings in six days.

The stretch of road, which according to locals was once dark and gloomy, is now alive with art that practically jumps off the walls. It's truly something to see, whether or not you follow street art. For those who do, the now-permanent exhibit includes the work of Bristol legend Inkie (who was one of the organizers), Germany's Wow 123, Kashink of France, and Poland's Swanski, to name just a few. As a New Yorker, I was particularly proud to see Tats Cru had left their mark.

After wandering up and down Nelson Street one afternoon, marveling at the dozens of brilliant pieces, I took a random walk around Bristol and spotted Banksy's iconic sniper and child painting on Upper Maudlin Street. I had planned to look up the locations of Banksy's work and chart a tour for myself (see The Banky Bristol Itinerary), but it was a thrill to stumble upon one of his creations. I felt like I was making a great discovery.

(Only a few weeks later, vandals — or a rival graffiti gang — attacked Banksy's sniper and child, covering the artwork with black paint. Let's hope the piece can be cleaned and restored.)

I would later see more of Banksy's art, including an eerie depiction of the grim reaper painted on the side of The Thekla, a music venue and nightclub on a boat. I also saw the famed Park Street stencil of a man looking out a window, trying to spot his wife's lover, who is hanging naked just outside, clutching the windowpane with one hand. At the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, I saw an angel with a bucket of pink paint plopped over her head. Banksy donated the cheeky statue to the museum a few years ago.

One of the museum employees, an older gentleman, told me that he was Banksy when I asked a question about the artist. He wasn't the only one who would make this claim, by the way. It's the big joke in Bristol, where apparently everyone is Banksy.

"Nice to meet you in person," I replied with a wink. "I love your work."

Click here to see the graffiti >

This post originally appeared on Fathom.

Tats Cru, from See No Evil

Banksy's sniper graffiti

Banksy's sniper, a close-up

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Brands are increasingly turning toward guerrilla tactics to amp up their marketing, and a popular method is to use graffiti, or murals, in urban areas.

There are firms out there dedicated to doing just that -- including Tatscru, ALT Terrain and CriticalMassive. Some of their work is spectacular, and they've put together gigantic murals for the biggest brands around.

But the method is controversial, and has many opponents. Some call it deceptive, since it's advertising posing as regular street art. In NYC, there has been a movement against advertising billboards and murals -- spearheaded by Public Ad Campaign -- and they've whitewashed hundreds.

ALT Terrain's Toyota Matrix "The 5th Door" campaign included ads in NYC, Philadelphia, DC and Atlanta

Tatscru has done a ton of murals for companies' promotional campaigns -- and for some of the biggest brands out there, like this one for McDonald's

And one that makes BP look more environmentally-conscious

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Brands and companies are constantly looking for new ways to connect with the public, whether it is creating or strengthening a social media presence or the millions spent on advertising campaigns. Brands want to be noticed. And one way to get that notice is through a growing trend called guerrilla marketing.

City Eventions is a guerrilla marketing company based in NY that is working with Chevrolet on promoting their new 2012 Chevy Sonic. One way they thought would be cool to do this is to get the car in people's mind...and under their feet.

That is where Hani Shihada comes into play. He has been doing "sidewalk art," as he call it, since the 1970s and is one of the only artists of its ilk in NYC. He is working on a big sidewalk art display incorporating the Chevy Sonic, and two men seemingly parachuting, though we couldn't tell because the piece is still in progress.

The official unveiling of the completed work is scheduled for tomorrow, but here is a sneak peak today.

A crowd formed at 34th Street near Herald Square last night to see what the fuss was about.

Hani Shihada has been doing this kind of work for almost 40 years now.

He works with focused concentration.

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Even as global tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program continue to burn, two Irianian brothers that go by the psuedonyms ICY and SOT adorn the walls of Tehran with their controversial messages. 

Risking their lives in the process, they wield their spray cans and multiple stencils to give the voice to the most vulnerable of their society - children, women, and the elderly.

Their art, influenced by street artists such as Banksy, has been recognized internationally in the recent months and a collection of their works was featured in ARTINFO France last month. 

Besides advocating for peace, ICY and SOT also tackle the issue of child labor. You can follow them on icyandsot.com, Flickr, Vimeo and Facebook.

ICY and SOT are brothers from Tabriz, Iran

ICY and SOT are pseudonyms that help the brothers keep a low profile and avoid arrest

"Being arrested in Iran is completely different, because they charge you with crimes that you have not even committed ..."

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Many municipal bus-stop advertisements leave much to be desired, especially this one– ugh.

Enter Vermibus, a Berlin-based street artist who's on a mission to turn soul-deadening billboards into museum-quality masterpieces, although in his own wonderfully creepy way.

When Vermibus sees a street poster he thinks could use some sprucing up – Kate Moss has been one target, to judge from this distressing glimpse into what's either his studio or Charlie Manson's old basement—he pulls it from its protective frame and takes it back home.

There, he defiles the people depicted in the ad with a corrosive solvent, so that their bodies look like pillars of melting lard. Then he slips back outside and puts the new and improved billboard back in place, where it lies waiting to shock the grocery bags out of some poor grannie's hands.

Regarding his unique process, the Open Walls Itinerant Street Art Gallery has this to say:

The gesture of erasing the images with solvent is similar to the gesture of painting, but it is painting counter action. The process is the same, but it is not adding colours on a canvas to create an image, it is removing the colors of an existing photographic image to create a new image and new characters. The models of the adverts have mutated. Some look like ghosts or mummies, some are reminiscent of Francis Bacon’s paintings, some of tribal make-up.

This process evokes voodoo art which uses human elements like hair, or teeth to create anthropomorphic sculptures. In this context, Vermibus uses “glossy paper” as his flesh to manipulate. There is something very organic about the emaciated creatures that emanate from the billboards. The impersonal and sanitized perfect bodies have turned into shadows or mummies that have much more presence and singularity.

Emphasis mine, to fete this outstanding use of understatement.

This November, Vermibus performed an intervention outside the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Urban photog JUST was there to document the artist's monstrous alteration of Berlin's city skin. Have a look:

More photos at JUST.de.

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I will freely admit that Robbie Griffith is much cooler than I was at age 12. For me, a slammin' day in the seventh grade involved consuming Frosted Mini-Wheats while watching Animaniacs. Griffith, on the other hand, prefers to execute flawless tuck-and-rolls on punishing concrete and hurdle over the deep chasms between buildings.

Griffith, who goes by the street name "Wee Beastie," is the youngest-ever member of Parkour Generations, a London-based organization devoted to furthering the urban sport. He was accepted into the group last month as a trainee in the "Developing Athlete Programme," a mentoring gig that matches parkour prodigies with older, wiser and no doubt bruised-er free runners. Griffith, who sometimes wears a backpack to practice, is "an exceptional young man with real talent, passion and dedication to the discipline," writes Generations, "and we are sure he has a bright future on our mentoring programme and in parkour in general."

The fleet-footed lad has trained for more than a year at the Coatbridge parkour course, thought to be the first of its kind in Scotland. (Police and the local government built it to stop kids from running around on area rooftops.) Fellow Coatbridge enthusiast Peter McKee postedthis video of the Beastie doing his thing on YouTube, saying: "Move over Altaïr and Ezio. Looks like Abstergo doesn't need the Animus to go all Assassin's Creed on the streets!" (If you understand that, you might be playing too many video games.) That body ricochet off the wall at 1:20 is straight out of a Jackie Chan flick.

And here's the youngster kicking it in Scotland, performing a four-part leapfrog of walls like it was nothing:

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Just off the 7 train in Long Island City, Queens, you'll find a 200,000-square-foot warehouse that's impossible to miss.

It's called 5 Pointz, and it's the center of the New York City street art scene. This isn't your typical tag-your-name-and-run-when-the-cops-come type of place.

5 Pointz is an outdoor exhibit for the absolute best underground art in the city, where artists from around the world show off their incredible work. After gaining permission from the building owner in 2001, the walls have seen continuous change under the curation of Jonathan Cohen, a self-described"graffiti veteran" with the signature tag "Meres One."

The graffiti mecca has been rumored to be getting demolished and replaced with high-rise apartments. But those are only rumors, says Marie Cecile Flaguel, a spokesperson for 5 Pointz.

"Just for demolition purposes, [building management] needs to get permission of MTA and Amtrak," Flaguel told Business Insider, because the work would have major effects on train traffic. Those permits, she says, have not been approved.

A look down the long wall and you know this building is special.

The 200,000-square-foot warehouse is home to 5 Pointz, a mecca of street art.

The name is supposed to signify the five boroughs of New York City.

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The notoriously secretive and satirical street artist known as Banksy has been surprising people around the world for two decades now. His works draw thousands of tourists and have sold in auctions for hundreds of thousands — even millions— of dollars. 

Earlier this week Banksy revealed he would spend the month of October putting up art around New York City. 

In honor of his NYC takeover, we're taking a look back at some of his most iconic works. 

In 2003, Banksy staged an exhibit in a warehouse in London's East End. It was shut down after two days.

This is one in a series of controversial works he did on the barrier separating Israel and Palestine in 2005.

Banksy painted Charles Manson as a hitchhiker on a London street corner in 2005.

On Day #9 of his month-long series on the streets of New York City, graffiti artist Banksy has gone dark with a depiction of a shootout between armed men and hi-tech horses wearing night-vision goggles.

The mural, located on the Lower East Side, appears to be painted on a car and the side of a truck.

UPDATE: A tipster tells us this piece is on Ludlow between Rivington and Stanton Streets. He also said that some people attempted to hop the locked chain-link fence to get a closer look. One guy tried to take the orange cone that's part of the work, but he left it after he was booed by the crowd, our tipster said.

Additional pictures of the crowds are below.

This latest work is accompanied by an "audio guide" narrating the shootout with "Crazy Horse" on a police radar. You can listen to it on Banksy's website.

The work is behind a heavily chained fence. A toll-free number where passers-by can access the audio guide is located on the garbage can next to the car.

A tipster sent in some additional photos of the work and the crowd that has gathered:

Banksy gave a rare interview to The Village Voice today, explaining why he picked New York City for his latest installation.

You can find the rest of the works in his month-long series, titled "Better Out Than In," here.

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For today's installment in his month-long series "Better Out Than In," street artist Banksy appeared to have taken advantage of a fallen "No Parking" sign.

He made the broken post look like the work of a beaver:

The work is located in East New York, according to the artist's website. If you know its exact location, send an email (and photo) to thelife@businessinsider.com.

Yesterday, Banksy made a serious splash on the Lower East Side with a mural of night-goggle-wearing horses on a car:

But not everyone's impressed with Banksy's new series in New York. Business Insider graphic designer Mike Nudelman argues that the prolific artist has run out of things to say.

You can see all the previous installments in the series here.

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Over the weekend, street artist Banksy pulled an outrageous stunt in Central Park, selling valuable art on the cheap to unsuspecting tourists.

For today's installment in his month-long series on the streets of New York, he headed to Queens, where he painted a quote from the movie "Gladiator":

"What we do in life echoes in eternity"

The elusive artist wrote on his website: "Some people criticize me for using sources that are a bit low brow (this quote is from 'Gladiator') but you know what? "I'm just going to use that hostility to make me stronger, not weaker" as Kelly Rowland said on the X Factor."

A tipster let us know the work can be found in Queens at the southeast corner of 69th St. and 38th Ave.

London-based Banksy is unveiling a new art installation in New York City every day during the month of October for a project called "Better Out Than In."You can see previous works in the series here.

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Shortly after Banksy's stencil of a boy wielding a sledgehammer was discovered on the Upper West Side this morning, someone reportedly tried to deface it.

Witnesses told Gothamist that a man tried to spray-paint over the piece, #20 in the elusive street artist's month-long series in New York City. But the crowd stopped him before he could damage the work.

The stencil is located on 79th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave. and is already attracting big crowds (photo via the artist's website).

And a video of the scene after someone tried to paint over it, via Gothamist. (Warning: some language is NSFW):

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Street artist Banksy paid a visit to the South Bronx for today's tag.

The stencil plays on what appears to be existing graffiti, which reads "Ghetto 4 Life." Banksy added a young spray-painter and his butler (photos via his website).

The work is the 21st in Banksy's month-long "residency" in New York City.

If you know the exact location of today's work, please send us an email (and photo) at thelife@businessinsider.com.

The artist visited the Upper West Side for yesterday's work. The crowds scared off a would-be defacer early in the day.

But the piece was destroyed overnight:

Banksy’s “Hammer Boy” has been destroyed overnight #banksy#banksynypic.twitter.com/QiEhOTNYue

— StreetArtNews (@streetartnews) October 21, 2013

Click here to see the rest of the works in the series.

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For today's installation in his month-long show on the streets of New York, artist Banksy built a replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza.

The cinderblock sculpture is located in Queens. A tipster lets us know it's at 127th St. & 35th Ave. in Willets Point, near Citi Field.

The artist writes on his website: "Everything but the kitchen Sphinx. A 1/36 scale replica of the great Sphinx of Giza made from smashed cinderblocks.You're advised not to drink the replica Arab spring water."

The work is #22 in Banksy's show, called "Better Out Than In."You can see the rest of the works in the series here.

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Street art has long had a contentious relationship with the law. Judging by how New York is treating street-artist-in-residence Banksy, it doesn’t look to get better in America anytime soon. However, two street artists in Poland are making a push to put legal street art on the map. 

The Etam Cru— comprised of Bezt (Mateusz Gapski) and Sainer (Przemek Blejzyk) — have been legally creating street murals in the cities of Poland for more than ten years. Because they work legally, usually in a public-private partnership, they are able to create paintings that can stretch as tall as ten stories high. 

The duo has been so successful that they’ve even begun to do murals in the United States and the rest of Europe. This past year they painted massive murals in Richmond, Virginia for the Richmond Mural Project. 

Here’s a look at a few of their projects:

Big projects, like this one in Lodz, Poland from this year, can take between four and eight days to create."99 percent" of their mural ideas don't happen until they see the wall they are working on. They painted this one in 2010 for the small city of Gorzów Wielkopolski in Western Poland.

They created this one for the Katowice Street Art Festival in 2010. The festival happens every year in late April and features some of the biggest names in the European street art scene. 

This one was also done for a festival, the 2012 All You Can Paint Festival in Halle, a small city in eastern Germany.They created this painting in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia this year. Bezt and Sainer rarely choose what colors they use before they begin painting and they often paint freestyle on the wall. They just finished this one, called "Monkey Business," in September. It is in Warsaw, Poland. They created "Traphouse" for the Urban Forms Gallery in Lodz, Poland. The gallery is a permanent exhibition sponsored by Lodz Mayor Hanna Zdanowska and features many well-known street artists. You can see how they created "Traphouse" in the video below:

SEE ALSO:  Stunning Photos Of Romania's Post-Communist Industrial Decay

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5 Pointz, the 200,000-square-foot Queens warehouse at the center of the New York City street art world, was painted over last night.

5 Pointz has served as an exhibition space for top New York graffiti artists since the 1990s, but plans to replace it with luxury condos have led to a months-long battle to save it.

Artists and fans alike have rallied against demolishing the building, filing a lawsuit under the claim that doing so would be an illegal destruction of art.  

Even the elusive street artist Banksy got involved during his October residency, hiring a supporter to hand out pamphlets at Brooklyn Federal Court, and writing the message "Save 5pointz" on his website on his last day in the city. 

Last week, a federal judge denied an injunction to preserve the property, effectively allowing the demolition process to begin. 

Earlier this morning, the official 5 Pointz Twitter account confirmed last night's changes: 

5 pointz is gone, painted white overnight by the owner ..with police protection

— 5 Pointz (@5PointzNYC) November 19, 2013

 WNYC reporter Stephen Nessen shared this photo that shows the newly white wall: 

Confirmed 5 Pointz graffiti Mecca was painted over last night pic.twitter.com/tweDokQR2Y

— Stephen Nessen (@s_nessen) November 19, 2013

SEE ALSO: Forget Banksy, These Polish Street Artists Are Looking To Put Legal Street Art On The Map [PHOTOS]

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It's a dark day for the New York City street art scene.

5 Pointz, the 200,000-square-foot warehouse that was long a centerpiece for New York City street artists, was whitewashed last night.

The building, which has served as an exhibition space for top graffiti artists for more than a decade, is slated to become luxury condominiums.

Artists and fans rallied to save the colorful space, but last week, a federal judge denied an injunction to preserve the property, effectively allowing the demolition process to begin. 

We visited the space last year, when rumors of its demise were just beginning to surface. Click through for a look at 5 Pointz before it was whitewashed.

A look down the long wall and you knew this building was special.

The 200,000-square-foot warehouse in Queens was home to 5 Pointz, a mecca of street art.

The name was supposed to signify the five boroughs of New York City.

Mayors of major cities often consider street art a threat to maintaining order and decency, but the practice is being embraced as much as ever in communities around the world.

The Australian paint company Ironlak sponsors a team of street artists and markets directly to them. As part of their advertising campaign, Ironlak created a short film with videographer Selina Miles and the graffiti artists Sofles, Fintan Magee, Treas, and Quench — and it is incredible.

We normally would point you to highlights of a video lasting just over five minutes, but we doubt you'll want to skip anything. Watch time-lapse footage of four professional artists using an entire warehouse as their canvas:

DJ Butcher's soundtrack is available for free download on his Facebook page.

This project, by the way, was done legally, but unsolicited graffiti is still illegal in Australia.

SEE ALSO: Forget Banksy, These Polish Street Artists Are Looking To Put Legal Street Art On The Map [PHOTOS]

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Photographer Ruddy Roye considers himself an "Instagram activist," tasked with telling the stories of New Yorkers whose stories would otherwise go untold. 

The more than 2,700 photos on his Instagram profile accomplish just that. Roye photographs the people he sees on the streets, most often when he's driving to and from dropping his sons off at school in Brooklyn's Fort Greene and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods. 

Click here to jump right to the photos >>

The people in the photos have stories to tell. There are the two men waiting outside a bodega for their reduced food stamp benefits. Then there's Sidahi, the former Alvin Ailey dancer who complains of hearing voices. And there's Andrew, the veteran addict looking for work. 

"All the people I photograph have interesting stories," he said to Business Insider. "My aim is to tell them as best as I can."

He hopes that his stunning, gritty portraits can spread a message of inclusiveness in his community. 

"I want people to be more aware of their surroundings and communities. I want to help change the way we look at people," he said. "I want the images to humanize a face that we scorn [and] ignore for whatever reason, and I want us all to judge less because we all have a story to tell."

Roye grew up in Jamaica, an upbringing that had a significant impact on his growth as a photographer. 

"We would all sit around, telling stories that are older than my grandparents,"he said to DNAinfo. "So for me it's in my blood to tell stories I see on a day-to-day basis."

For Roye, Instagram has proven to be the most direct way to share those stories with his audience. 

"It is a platform that does not have the usual gatekeepers. It is the great equalizer," he said. "I am allowed a voice here."

He shared some of his photos with Business Insider. They are shown here with the original captions from his Instagram account.

April 23, 2013 — Ernst & Young

 "What occupies a New Yorker's mind is anyone's guess."

Source: Ruddy Roye/ Instagram

May 16, 2013 — Common Grounds

"All he said was 'it is a nice day for a stroll.'"

Source: Ruddy Roye/ Instagram

May 18, 2013 — Silk Road Cafe

"Falun Gong Parade — DimSum Saturday at Nom Wah Tea Parlour."

Source: Ruddy Roye/ Instagram

For that angsty high schooler in your life, Walmart is now selling a bunch of Banksy knockoffs. Most ironically, one print is titled, "Destroy Capitalism". Another print of a work by street artist Eddie Colla that Walmart mistook for a Banksy featured the words, "If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission."

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