Off the Wall

Top Bristol photographer Stephen Morris has been out and about trying to catch up with Bristol's ever-changing graffiti - an anarchic scene so interesting that Destination Bristol has given it a tourist web page all its own. In all, he's captured more than 50 examples. Some walls have been commissioned, by schools, pubs, youth clubs and building sites. One superb example of commissioned graffiti is the flying bread and cakes on Herbert's bakery in Wellington Avenue, but the liveliest artwork is the unofficial, sprayed as it were on the run from arrest. Even the best is often quickly lost under fresh paint, good art obliterated by the mindless. And yes, Banksy is represented here. Love it or hate it, Bristol graffiti is inventive, clever and sometimes brilliant. Is it art? Stephen Morris just took the pictures, and says it's for us to decide.