Is graffiti art or defacement? It depends on its context. In Toronto, building owners along Queen Street welcome the city’s graffiti artists to paint their walls – at least those that face the alley in the rear. Graffiti Alley runs just south of Queen Street from Spadina to Portland – about a kilometer’s worth of real estate. Each summer for the last few years a group called “style in progress” has taken over the alley for 24 hours of legal painting. The result is spectacular, as this image implies. I thank pbase photographer Jude Marion, (judespics) who spent an afternoon shooting with me in Toronto, and took me to this place. She says it also has become a mecca for local photographers. I can see why.