Nicky Higher Perspective – Inspiring Art Prints, Memories and Films
Of all the art prints I’ve created, I must say this photograph stands out as one of my favourites. I wonder, how many people use underground railways every day in major cities across the world, and don’t stop to think how fascinating they are? It’s a whole subterranean world, yet people I suppose just take them for granted.
Growing up in London, I became accustomed to using the Underground (or The Tube as we call it) however it was something that took me years to fully get my young head around. For me, descending the escalators seemingly deep into the bowels of the earth was like a trip into Narnia. It was an exciting realm full of corridors and tunnels and people rushing to get from one place to another. Of course as a youngster I really had no sense of scale so could never really work out how a quick train trip would seemingly send you from one end of the country to the other!
I can remember recently riding this escalator upwards in this station, which is Kentish Town, and being inspired by all the parallel lines simply escaping towards infinity. I just had to whip out my camera for what I hoped would be an inspiring artwork, and I’m really happy at the way I captured it.
When I developed this London art print, I was surprised how much it reminded me of the techniques used by one of my favourite film-makers, the late Stanley Kubrick. I am a movie lover, and share a library of over 2,000 DVDs and Blu-rays with my husband. I’ve seen most of Kubrick’s work, and his love of framing shots with one-point perspective has always resonated with me. He championed it as a way of creating tension, and every one of his films features scenes shot with the vanishing point set dead centre of the frame. Off the top of my head I can visualise Danny cycling down a hotel corridor in The Shining, R. Lee Emrey walking down the line of recruits in Full Metal Jacket, and the psychedelic trip undertaken by astronaut Dave Bowman towards the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
There’s also, for me, a very personal aspect of this fine art print. I will always remember the journey I was making, from Kentish Town to Highgate Road in May this year. I was back home in London, but not for happy reasons, as my Dad had passed away two weeks before. When I moved to Toronto, it was with the slight fear of leaving my family behind and being distant should the worst happen.
My dad was taken ill and thankfully I did get back time to see him before he passed away. I spent time back in London after he had passed, just wandering the familiar streets with my camera and taking photographs of whatever I saw that inspired me. My dad loved taking photographs, and me and my five brothers and sisters were his favourite subjects. It’s another reason photography means so much to me. Photography and now more lately creating art from my photographs is my focus. I often wonder what my dad would think of me, now I produce artistic prints from my photographs. I do know he would be proud of me for doing so … although he’d also ask what took me so long!
