Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/christopher-rimmer

Birth Place

Ormskirk, Lancashire, England

Biography

Christopher Rimmer (b.1965) is a British born Australian photographer, best known for his emotive images of the African wilderness. Rimmer was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, UK, before emigrating to South Africa as a child. Here, he would experience many personal challenges including the loss of his parents and brother at an early age; experiences that would later impart a profound impact on his photographic work. The mood of 1970s Apartheid in South Africa would likewise go on to occupy Rimmer’s adult life and become represented through his work. Indeed, Rimmer’s move to Australia in 1981 was perpetuated by avoiding conscription into the South African Army. Rimmer began taking photographs as a teenager while in South Africa, at first using a plastic 35mm Hanimex camera, he sold his first photograph to the angling magazine ‘Tight Lines’ at the age of 15 in 1980. Rimmer began formal training once in Australia, first under Werner Hammerstingl and then at Rusden College, Melbourne under Paul Green, completing a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Photography and Graduate Diploma of Education in 1991. Here, Rimmer attained experience in utilising medium and large format film cameras. Following graduation, he taught darkroom printing at three Melbourne schools and was appointed Victorian editor of Scuba Action Magazine in 1991. Rimmer spent hundreds of hours taking underwater photographs in exotic locations such as the Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef which also featured in publications. In 2009, Rimmer was diagnosed with cancer and completed a course of chemotherapy in recovery that also saw him lose 25kg. Only five weeks later after the completion of his treatment, Rimmer returned to his artistic endeavors, heading into the African wilderness in the attempt to regain his personal and spiritual well-being through the creation of further work. Rimmer’s best known series of works have drawn from excursions he made in 2009 to his former homeland and other areas of the African wilderness (Etosha Pan, etc.). Christopher Rimmer – In Africa, opened in Melbourne in March 2011, and Spirits Speak opened at Without Pier Gallery, Melbourne in June 2012, both being well received critically and also through popular recognition. In each, Rimmer seeks to make a connection with the landscape of his childhood, drawing strength from the beauty of its culture and wildlife. He employs sepia toning through much of his photographic work which highlights the sense of time passing, and also the fragility of his subject matter- the African wilderness, including species that are under threat of hunting. His most recent exhibition, Signs of Life, highlights the way a period of human activity is inevitably subject to the passing of time. The result, expressed in his photographs of the old mining towns of Kolmanskop and Elizabeth Bay, depicts a once proud moment of human endeavour that becomes eroded by the changing landscape it inhabits. Rimmer states it is this product that he finds both visually beautiful, while also serving as an analogy for the ultimate futility of human endeavor. Today, Rimmer is undertaking work on his latest project, “Amopondo”, which will be exhibited at the New York Art Expo 2015. He is also undertaking a commissioned project with St Kilda, Tourism, that will include a publication incorporating his works, which will also be displayed as large banners suspended from vacant buildings in the area. Rimmer is a member of the Royal Photographic Society. In 2009, he received an Excellence Accreditation from the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique (FIAP), Paris, France in 2009, and a Platinum Accreditation in 2010. He was also shortlisted for Black and White Photographer of the Year in 2011 and 2012 by the British B+W Magazine. In 2010, Rimmer drew the media’s attention when sample photographs for an upcoming exhibition he had displayed on Facebook were deleted by the company. The photos displayed bare-breasted and breast-feeding tribal Himba women as the subject of his current series. The photos were deemed unsuitable for viewing (by children) and pornographic, violating Facebook’s terms of use policy. This caused some debate over the ethics of Facebook’s censorship policy regarding not only Rimmer’s work, but other artists’ work and wider art forms. In 2013, he also withdrew a long running association held with Nikon, due to the company’s promotion and production of optics specifically made for trophy hunting, including large animals found in Africa- the very feature of his most emotive work. He is also a supporter of the World Lion Day’s campaign to promote conservation awareness for the species, alongside other organisations and individuals including the National Geographic. Rimmer’s photographs of Africa have been widely published in both traditional and online media. He has exhibited in group and solo shows in Australia, UK, France and US. His work is represented in several public and many private collections. Writers: AngelaTandori Date written: 2014 Last updated: 2014

Born

b. 1965

Summary

Christopher Rimmer is an English-born photographer who relocated to South Africa as a child, before immigrating to Australia in 1981. His powerful photographs of the African landscape, its people and majestic wildlife, encapsulate the heart and spirit of Africa.

Gender

Male

Died

None listed

Age at death

None listed