Interview with the artist: Dale Yudelman
Why photography?
Genetics. My father introduced me to photography at a very young age - Photography transcends the need for words and goes beyond the barriers of language.
Describe yourself as a photographer?
Inquisitive
How about as a person?
I value peace and harmony as well as choice and personal freedom.
Who or what inspires you?
The ever-changing landscape of the inner and outer world in which we all live.
Who is ‘us’ to you?
Having grown up in South Africa I can identify and communicate with other South Africans in a unique way.
Describe your home city or living environment?
Cape Town is often described as one of the most beautiful places on earth -and I would have to agree. It enjoys a colourful culture and rich history, teeming with artistic individuals. As with many big cities, it has extreme class divisions and it’s fair share of problems, but I still believe it is a city with a great future.
How does your work show ‘us’?
South African’s are exploring a new concept of ‘us’ - these challenges and triumphs permeate and punctuate much of my work.
Your relationship to photography?
Committed.
The message of your work?
The function of the work is simply to create and provoke new thoughts and perceptions as well as to highlight and share the humour and ironies of life. All meaning and messaging remains subject to the subsequent narrative recreated by the viewer.
How is it to be a photography artist?
Being an artist and living my passion is a privileged position. The community and environment I live in help to shape my work and in turn, my experience. My life is about communicating, translating, sharing and shaping those common realities
and experiences.
What do you do when you do not photograph?
I enjoy exploring antique shops and markets in search of memorabilia, collecting what most people call junk.
The meaning of photography?
If not for the invention of photography we would be living in a completely different world today. It has made a massive impact on how many of us experience life - some positive, some negative. Perhaps photography becomes art, when it creates rather than regurgitates reality. In creating a new reality a difference has been made.
Tell us one memorable moment?
Watching TV with friends in Los Angeles in
1994 as Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as
South Africa's president.