Since the immortalisation of Che Guevara in Alberto Korda’s image Guerrillero Heroico, and the subsequent dissemination of the iconic image throughout countless city landscapes, there has been an undeniable symbiosis between photography and graffiti.

And it seems, according to today’s Metro newspaper, that history is repeating itself.

Although Jon Cartwright, an amateur photographer and web manager from Southwark in south-east London is no revolutionary, his self portrait, which first appeared on the website Flickr, has become an inspiration for Christian Guemy, a Paris-based artist.

Guemy, known on Flickr as C215, decided to use Cartwright’s photo as the base for a stencil which he plastered on the walls, skips and doorways of New York, Paris and London.

Apparently Cartwright was just conducting a lighting experiment with his camera and did not expect the image to gather such momentum until Guemy sent him a cryptic message reading, “This is a great picture of you. I will provide you sooner or later a surprise.”

To go from virtual obscurity to worldwide notoriety in the shake of a spray can must certainly have been more than Jon Cartwright could have bargained for.