PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES
GHOSTS AND SAND
G'day folks,
Art has many forms, and here is one captured by photographer, Christopher Rimmer.
Photographer, Christopher Rimmer’s latest exhibition, Sign
of Life, documents two abandoned diamond mining towns, Kolmanskop and Elizabeth
Bay in south western Namibia; both towns are slowly being buried by the
constantly shifting sands of the surrounding Namib Desert. The award winning
photographer employs the town’s decaying buildings as a visual metaphor to
explore the tragedy of lost significance and the ultimate futility of human
endeavour.
Kolmanskop and
Elizabeth Bay were established as a result of the discovery of diamonds in
southern Namibia at the beginning of the 20th Century when the country was a
German colony known as German South West Africa; as the revenue from diamond
mining poured in, the colonists furnished the towns with substantial and high
quality domestic, civic and commercial buildings, all constructed in the
Germanic Baltic style.The town of Kolmanskop boasted a hospital with the only x-ray machine in the Southern Hemisphere as well as a casino, gym, skittle alley and dance hall. Not to be outdone, the residents of Elizabeth Bay built their own opera house.
Eventually, what seemed like the never ending supply of diamonds was exhausted and both towns were slowly de-populated following the discovery of richer diamond deposits in the south of the country. A few straddlers remained but by 1951, both Kolmanskop and Elizabeth Bay were left to the restless sands of the Namib.
Sign of Life weaves a visual narrative founded on the premise that everything mankind constructs is useful for a limited amount of time only. Rimmer says it is what happens afterwards that he finds interesting both visually as a photographer and also as a psychological analogy to human existence itself.
Christopher Rimmer’s Sign of Life is a powerful body of work that expresses this duality in an elegant and graphically engaging manner.
Clancy's comment: This would not be everyone's cup of tea, but I admire Christopher for actually going there to take these shots. Thank you.
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