Christopher Riggert: The Chemistry of Sympathy

Overview

In one shot a man lays submerged, upside-down in a lake, ripples radiating outwards. The only hint of life held in his outstretched arms. In another we see a lonely northern hemisphere street corner where daily grinders hurry, briefcases in hand, to the warmth of their offices. The first has something eerie, lonesome and Ophelia-esque to it, while the second looks like the unhappy sequel to Hopper’s Nighthawks. Both distinct images make up part of Christopher Riggert’s eight-years-in-the-making exhibition The Chemistry of Sympathy at Challis Studios.

Riggert says he shoots things just as he finds them, that "they are discovered moments of everyday people and places". But how then does he get such a strong narrative element in there? Well, he's been shooting film since his dad gave him a camera at age 11, so not only does he know his equipment, but his day job as a commercials director plays into it too. Setting the clock back on zero with this exhibition, Riggert can now embark on another eight years of documenting the everyday.