Steel Dan at work in Sanlitun, by LLYS

"Patchwork," a graffiti performance, was held in Sanlitun on May 24. During the event, French group TT crew and Beijing's BJPZ, along with Steel Dan (发条钢蛋), painted murals on large wall-like canvases specially set up for the occasion.

Graffiti blogger LLYS posted photos of the artists in action, sketch books and stencils, and details of finished work.

More images of the event, including several wider-angle views, can be found on Beijing Boyce.

LLYS has been posting his photos of Beijing's graffiti to a Sina blog since mid-2007. In a web-chat with graffiti artists that year, he described his motivation for documenting graffiti:

MO: Hello. I'm Mo with BJPZ. Saw your blog - so someone's paying attention to people like us! It's gratifying, and I have to thank you - heh - we don't even have lots of the pictures here! Keep in touch!
LLYS: Hi, Mo! I mostly focus on Beijing graffiti, trying to get as many photos of Beijing graffiti as I can. Who knows, maybe I'll set up a graffiti museum in the future (maybe online, or maybe inside a museum). Some people photograph Beijing's disappearing hutongs and courtyard homes; I photograph Beijing's graffiti, which is doomed to disappear. You will one day bid goodbye to your spray paint, but I'll never leave my camera behind....

SOOS: I'm really moved seeing all the photos of graffiti you've taken. You're doing something real. Kudos.
LLYS: Thanks for the encouragement, SOOS. When I passed Dawang Road on the third, I looked off to the southwest, and your work had already disappeared. This is why I'm continually taking photos of graffiti. Graffiti - whether you like it or not - belongs to this city, is a part of this city, and even when it disappears from the street, it will remain alive in my photo album...

Adrian Sandiford recently profiled LLYS for Time Out Beijing:

He's effusive, welcoming and wildly enthusiastic about graffiti. He's happy to talk about anything and everything, except for his real name, which must remain a secret because of his day job. If his superiors found out what he does in his spare time, he tells us, he'd lose his job.

Llys, as we must call him, would soon be rumbled should his boss pop round – his apartment has bookshelves full of photo albums packed with the street art photos he's taken, which must number more than 5,000 images.

And that's just of the films he's developed. Add his digital database to the equation and we're talking more than 15,000 pictures. All of which raises the question: why do it?

"The reason is quite simple," says Llys. "I like photography, and have a background in art. At the beginning, back in 2005, I was just taking pictures of Beijing's streets. I became interested in the composition of bar signs in Sanlitun. I only took a picture of some graffiti because of the colours. Then, by chance, I saw Li Qiuqiu's work in Baihua Hutong in Xinjiekou, which shocked me."

The whole article is fascinating and well worth a read.