09
201211. Coke Snorting Copper
The Stencil: Coke Snorting Copper by Banksy
This stencil of Banksy’s turned up around 2005 in a bunch of different locations, most notably around the back of Waterloo Station on Leake Street and also on Curtain Street in Shoreditch- both in London. In Banksy’s ‘Wall and Piece’ you can see more detailed images of how some of these stencils also included several kilometres of paint dribble, twisting and turning through the city, eventually leading to the stencil and the ‘line’ of coke.
Stencil on a wall in Leake Street (Image from: http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/banksy/banksy_copper_reflection.htm)
Another version up on Curtain Road in Shoreditch, London. (Image from: http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/banksy/banksy_coke_copper.htm)
The Location:
For this image, I wanted the model to be in a really dingy sort of location, so I went looking for places that had dumpsters and were a bit filthy. I found this place behind the back of a hotel in the Hamilton CBD and I was drawn to it because I liked the colour of the paint on the wall and also the graffiti on the dumpster.
There was one other location I was going to use, which was right behind a restaurant, but when we turned up on the night to start shooting, the staff had parked all their cars in the spot I wanted to use so we had to move. Fortunately, I was going to try this location anyway, and we didn’t have to drive far to get to it.
Props/Wardrobe:
For this shoot I was able to re-use a few pieces from the other shoots so the only new pieces I haven’t mentioned earlier were the genuine British Police ‘peaked’ cap, a radio from the prop company I hired the guns from and the ‘cocaine’, which was just a bit of icing sugar from the supermarket.
The Shoot:
I found it a bit awkward approaching people to be the model for this shoot because I wasn’t really sure how they would feel about being told they would make a great cracked out police officer. Fortunately, an old co-worker of mine had offered to help out with anything I needed for the project, and he was a very open minded when I told him about the concept. He fit the build perfectly, and did a really great job on the night.
On the night of the shoot, I waited till there was no available light left and then lit the model and area next to him with the b1600 and the 7 inch reflector + grid from my left.