James Higginson (born April 21, 1957) is an American filmmaker, fine artist, and photographer based in Berlin, Germany. His artworks and films address social issues and expose human frailty.
Early life and education
Born James Harold Higginson, Jr in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to James Harold and Louise Betterly Higginson. He is the oldest of 5 children, raised in a suburb of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Higginson received his BS in Marine Biology in 1978 from Pennsylvania State University. He attended night school at Museum of Fine Arts School, Boston, Mass. and attended Art Center College of Design (1982-4). He received his MFA in Studio Art from Claremont Graduate University in 1990.
Career
Marine Biologist
Higginson was a biologist before becoming a fine artist. He worked as a research assistant for Texas State University at the St. Croix Marine Facility, USVI (1979) and as research technician at Boston University Biology Department (1980-2).
Getting Started in Art and Film
He moved to Los Angeles to attend Art Center College of Design (1982) and was hired by a Disney subsidiary to work on a children’s TV show, “Welcome to Pooh Corner” (1984) and then Production Designed the TV show “Dumbo’s Circus”(1986).
In 1988, Higginson was awarded a Daytime Emmy with the creative team, Gary Panter, Ric Heitzman, Wayne White, Jeremy Railton, and Paul Rubens for the Production Design/Art Direction/Set Decoration of the CBS cult classic TV show, Pee-wee's Playhouse (1987-88). He worked as a set decorator for commercial director Joe Pytka and with set decorator Judi Giovanni on the film Sandlot (1993). He worked as the prop master for MADTV (1995-2003).
Art Career
Higginson’s artworks diverge from painting and sculpture in his early career through performance and photography in mid-career and then into film.
Painting
As a painter, Higginson was invited to collaborate with Chinese Master Xie Tien Cheng in 1989 on a body of 30 paintings that combined techniques of Western conceptual art making with elements of traditional Eastern painting. Over the course of the five-week collaboration, the two artists contemporized the subjects, modes, and styles of the T’ang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). as well, they addressed the tumultuous political climate of the current time and the events surrounding the Tiananmen Square Massacre. These paintings were exhibited at the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California in 1993.[1]
Photography
Higginson’s photography took focus by the late 1990s. In “Portraits of Violence”, he tackled the issue of domestic violence with life-size, color, staged photographs. Using lectures, panel discussions, tours, and live performances, Higginson then expanded the dialogue between his artwork in the museum and the community. “Portraits of Violence” has been exhibited worldwide in galleries and museums in California, New York, Berlin (C/O Berlin[2]), Budapest, and Cologne. A hardcover book of this photography series, POV:Portraits of Violence,[3] was published in 2004.
Films
James Higginson[4] grounded the production companies Avonbiehl (2011-2019) and Allaluce Films (2022-present) in support of film and photographic projects. He has produced, directed, written, and worked as the DOP for
Willful Blindness (2012), an experimental feature,
Breaks the boundaries of distant memory and familiar present. Three interwoven narrative threads are reconstituted in an unconventional, experimental, kaleidoscopic rollercoaster ride that becomes this visual experience. Surreal and shocking, yet oddly meditative, is a stunning journey into personal choice and survival.[6]
Higginson takes the concept of film to its final limits---that it is not the camera that is the projector, it is us, our minds, reaching out of the depths of the repressed impulses who streams our darkest fears onto a helpless blank white screen. Powerful and moving, even frightening, Willful Blindness is an act of art.
— Jeanne Willette, IMDb review, June 2012
Devout (2017)
Provides a glimpse into the life of a 22-year-old Georgian Orthodox monk as he contemplates his understanding of faith. The film bears cinematic witness to his internalized struggle as it presents a visual portrait of the monks, their contemporary, ritualistic lives, and the work inside the monasteries.[7]
Award
Year
Category
Prize
Result
Impact Doc Awards
2018
Documentary Feature
Award of Excellence
Won
Impact Doc Awards
2018
Cinematography
Award of Excellence
Won
Impact Doc Awards
2018
Original Score
Award of Excellence
Won
Indie Fest Awards
2018
Sound Editing / Sound Mixing
Award of Excellence
Won
Indie Fest Awards
2018
Award of Excellence
Won
Shuddhi (2023)
A poetic blend of documentary and auteur cinema, interweaves themes of humanness, fear, love, judgement, and the never-ending cycle of water. SHUDDHI reveals the reality of Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) and its enduring stigma, creating a meditative portrait of familial tenderness and cultural respect against the backdrop of India's rivers, landscapes, and a remaining hospital for the disease.[8]
Award
Year
Category
Prize
Result
Cine Paris Film Festival
2023
Short Documentary
Best Director
Won
Cine Paris Film Festival
2023
Best Cinematography
Won
Indie Fest Awards
2023
Special Mention — Short Doc
Award of Excellence
Won
Indie Fest Awards
2023
Cinematography
Award of Excellence
Won
Rajasthan International Film Festival, RIFF
2024
Official Selection: World Premiere
Yes
Rajasthan International Film Festival, RIFF
2024
Best International Short Film
Won
Jaipur International Film Festival, JIFF
2024
Official Selection
Yes
Jaipur International Film Festival, JIFF
2024
Short Documentary
Special Mention Jury Award
Won
Nice International Film Festival
2024
Official Selection: European Premiere
Yes
Nice International Film Festival
2024
Best Foreign Language Film
Nominated
Nice International Film Festival
2024
Foreign Language Film
Best Director
Won
Nice International Film Festival
2024
Documentary Film
Best Editing
Nominated
Nice International Film Festival
2024
Science Award
Nominated
Indie Fest Awards
2024
2023 Humanitarian Award
Outstanding Achievement
Won
Madrid International Film Festival
2024
Official Selection
Yes
Outreach and community engagement
Higginson’s interest to serve the community has reached outside the Fine Art World. To utilize the arts as a tool to elevate public awareness of pressing social problems, Higginson established the graphic design company d3G in 1999. d3G created graphics, photography, and artwork for community-focused projects designed to educate, inform, and inspire current and future generations.
During 2000-01, d3G focused on HIV education creating a Safe Sex Campaign in cooperation with the US cities of West Hollywood and Los Angeles and organizations including Aid for AIDS, L.A. Shanti, and the Van Ness House. Media coverage of this campaign extended to Berlin, Germany, with magazine articles discussing the significance of Safe Sex in the gay community. In June 2001, Higginson’s image, entitled Metamorphize, was selected to represent the event commemorating the 20th Anniversary of AIDS in Los Angeles. The d3G tagline, “become someone to admire” branded the citywide, multi-media day of remembrance.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2015: BEHOLD: Perspectives at play in a young man’s mind, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin, Germany[9]
2007: Inheritance, Raab Galerie, Berlin
2007: I LOVE YOU: Portraits Against Violence, Studio DuMont, Cologne, Germany
2006: Searching Sierra Madre, Raab Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2005: I LOVE YOU: Portraits Against Violence, Ernst Museum, Budapest, Hungary
2005: Recollections, Sala Museale del Baraccano, Bologna, Italy
2003: Portraits of Violence, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany[10]
2003: POV: Sacrifice, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, New York
2002: POV: The Story of Shelley, Post, Los Angeles, California
2001: Nachdenken/Ponderance, MillerDurazo Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2000: Shapes & Compositions, MillerDurazo Gallery, Los Angeles, California