BANKSY // This is Not a Photo Opportunity, 2007

  • Banksy’s 2007 This is Not a Photo Opportunity stencil mocks staged protest imagery.
    Banksy, This is Not a Photo Opportunity, 2007.
    Spray-paint on found oil painting, in artist’s frame, 62 × 72 cm.
    Signed and dated “Banksy 07” on the reverse.
    © Banksy.
    This Is Not a Photo Opportunity is part of Banksy’s iconic Vandalised Oils series, where the artist hijacks found paintings to insert subversive commentary. Here, a sentimental countryside landscape-signed “Randall” in the corner, is interrupted by Banksy’s bold white spray-painted phrase across the canvas: “This is not a photo opportunity.” It’s a sarcastic dig at society’s obsession with image-making and performative documentation, delivered in Banksy’s classic deadpan style.
     
    Long before the rise of Instagram, Banksy was already critiquing the compulsion to capture moments rather than live them. The irony of defacing a picturesque scene with a warning against photography only deepens in today’s digital age. 
     
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  • “The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules.”

    – Banksy

    Banksy’s This Is Not a Photo Opportunity, from the Vandalised Oils series, reworks a traditional countryside landscape with the deadpan slogan sprayed across its surface. A satirical jab at society’s obsession with photography, the work has only grown more relevant in the digital era.
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