As Johnny Thornton recounts, "The inspiration for this photograph started in Cape Town where I lived, surfed and photographed in the 60's having fled Australia to prevent being in conscripted and sent to Vietnam, I saw a tiny clump of grass struggling to grow and survive in a crack in the pavement.

I made a decision to visit London, as all Australians must do; I was overwhelmed by London yet totally fascinated by what it had to offer. In the years to come I became a very successful advertising photographer with hundreds of prestige awards but craved creative freedom from the constrictions of advertising commissions and decided to produce my own images, I was drawn to surrealism and inspired by many artist.

I then saw yet another piece of grass struggling to live in the cobbles of Imperial Road by the gas works off the Kings Road in Fulham down the road from my Chelsea studio. My thoughts went back to that piece of grass in Cape Town and logically a spade came to mind with a pair of Terry de Havilland's iconic 70's high heel shoes, now this was how my struggle related to me in London."