A STOCKBROKER turned photographer who takes images inspired by Yorkshire folklore is to feature in a film.

In a whirlwind couple of years, Nicola Taylor, from North Yorkshire, has gone from working as a banker in the City of London to becoming a celebrated photographer of mythical images.

Ms Taylor, who comes from Great Ayton, decided to leave her job as a stockbroker after feeling exhausted by the lifestyle, and pursue something more creative.

Harbouring ambitions to become a fine art photographer, she completed a photography course at the London College of Communication.

Less than six months after completing the course, in November last year, the 34-year-old won a global competition to find the most inventive and original people working in the UK.

The four winners of the competition, run by vodka maker Stolichnaya, were picked to feature in a short film made by Bafta award winning director Martin Smith.

The film, called Twenty Four: Four, aims to document the lives of four people leading unique and creative lives in Britain. It was previewed last month at a private screening during the Sundance London Film and Music Festival.

Ms Taylor said: “There are four people involved in the film and it’s supposed to show 24 hours in the life of creativity in the UK.

“There’s a boxer from Dorset and two performance artists from London. The boxer and I are followed during the day-time and the performance artists at night.

“They filmed me taking my self-portrait pictures on the moors. The scenery here is so beautiful and they’ve seen that in my pictures and they’ve thought it would look great on screen.

“We filmed just outside Osmotherley. It’s a place that I have shot over and over again.”

Ms Taylor said her photographs are inspired by her childhood spent playing on the North York Moors, when her grandmother would tell her fairy stories about the surrounding landscape.

She takes self-portraits on the moors and then uses digital imagery to create a story around them. Her work has received international recognition and been sold in Europe and the US.

She said: “The photographs, Tales from the Moors Country, are loosely inspired by local stories and folklore.

“When I was a kid I would go and play up on the moors and my grandmother tell us stories about witches living in hollows and fairies under the bridges.”

Ms Taylor added: “They were inspired by that storytelling culture.”