Banksy

This morning I received the 'When you're a Stranger' camera number 7, so my mission today was to photograph a stranger.

Alison arrived at lunchtime, so we drove into Brighton to pick her up from the station and then parked the car at the Marina. We walked back into town along Madeira Drive where the 'Colour Run' had taken place - everyone was covered in pink and purple paint, as were the roads, and even a few dogs, but it was all in a good cause. I thought about asking one of the runners to be my 'stranger' but then Alan reminded me that the camera is Black & White so their colours wouldn't stand out.

We then went to a Japanese Festival in the Steine Gardens where lots of people were dressed in Manga style, and I saw a girl who I thought would be the perfect subject for the Blip project. I went up to her, explained what I was doing and asked if she'd be happy for me to photograph her. Amazingly she'd heard about the project and is studying photography so was actually very excited about being asked. I gave Alan my own camera and asked him to take a photo of her as well - he took a few shots, one of which was of me using the Blip camera to take to take her photo, and I've put a couple in my Blipfolio if you're interested.

Anyway, going back to today's blip - following on with my series of Brighton Street Art, this is the ultimate, being Banksy's 'Kissing Policemen'. It was painted on the side of the Prince Albert pub, and after a period of time the owner decided to sell it as it was estimated to be worth between £500,000 and £1 million. He arranged for it to be shipped to the US and sold in a New York gallery, but before it went, a specialist art restoration company used chemicals to transfer the image onto a canvas, and a copy was encased in perspex. It's actually a full length painting, but because of the reflections in the perspex it was difficult to get a clear image, so I've cropped it to just show their heads and shoulders.

Anyway, we've ordered an Indian take out, and it's just been delivered so I'll catch up with you later - hope you're having a good weekend!