Frames of reference — Gérard Rudolf on why photography and poetry ‘make me love this life’

Left: Actor, poet and photographer Gerard Rudolf. Right: A selection of Rudolf’s photographs. (Photos: Supplied; @gerard.rudolf on Instagram)

By Mick Raubenheimer

1 Nov 2024

Artist Gérard Rudolf believes art’s function is to elevate the world, making it tolerable by helping us see its beauty. He speaks about the music, books, theatre and images that enliven him.

After being mesmerised by film, Gérard Rudolf became an actor, working on stage and in movies to embody fresh characters and inhabit new worlds. He also captures snapshots of life through photography and poetry, which he believes mirror each other in arresting and framing a moment. We find out about who and what inspires him and what is next for the artist.

When did you first identify as a creative artist?

I think when I was still a boy. First, I was transfixed by films. The first film I recall seeing was Camelot, a morning show with my mother in Pretoria when I was about three, maybe four years old. I still remember the abject fear I felt every time Merlin appeared.

Around the same time I saw The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at a drive-in with my family. I felt elated, transformed somehow by the experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFNUGzCOQoI

Films suited my inner life. What I mean by that is that I was and still remain a dreamer, and films were to me like dreams. I understood that instinctively. I weaved myself into their narratives and film narratives weaved themselves into me. The world from then on became even more dreamlike to me – filmic, poetic, visceral. In short, I became fascinated with the artistic very early on.

Outside your medium, which branches of art most stimulate you?

The obvious answer here would be photography and poetry. I obsessively practise both and have for many years. They are inextricably connected in my mind because both mediums deal with the visual realisation of what I observe.

My photographs are poems and my poems are snapshots. I also think both mediums pretty much stop life in its tracks, so one can observe it at leisure, let it resonate and affect one. I cannot write without a camera, and I cannot take photographs without noticing the potential poetry of a scene first. Photography helps me to really see the beauty of the world around me and I feel charged to document all I see, all of it, and to share it with others. Photography and poetry are what make me love this life.

Which artists have inspired you, and why?

Hard question to answer. There are so many. It is like asking a person what their favourite movie or album is. It changes. But there are the constants, the ones I return to through the decades.

Nick Cave jumps into my mind first, for his blinding humanity. Laurie Anderson for her storytelling ability, her ability to transport me to strange yet familiar places. John Coltrane because his music is holy. Tom Waits because he is without compare – a musical genius. Talk Talk is my favourite band of all time.

Photographers like William Eggleston, Vivian Maier, Roger Ballen, Robert Frank, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus, Gordon Parks, Bruce Davidson – his 1958 images of the Clyde Beatty Circus are gut-wrenching… too many!

Poets: too many. Painters: too many. Film directors: too many.

Then there are the architects, fashion designers, sculptors, utility designers, graphic designers, comic book artists, novelists – Cormac McCarthy stands out, James Salter, Ivan Vladislavic, Harry Kalmer…

Gerard Rudolf Left: Actor, poet and photographer Gérard Rudolf. Right: A selection of Rudolf’s photographs. (Photos: Supplied; @gerard.rudolf on Instagram)

What, to you, is art’s most important function?

To elevate the human soul, to make the human fall in love with the world over and over again, to make life tolerable.

Local creatives – in any medium – who excite you?

Again, so many: William Kentridge, Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes (I like disruptors).

Theatre: Marí Borstlap. She is to my mind probably the director and set, costume and lighting designer to keep an eye on. She recently staged a production of La Traviata in Cape Town that set a new standard for opera in this country. It was truly something to behold – a production of such high artistic standards that the audience literally gasped in places. She also launched a play last month at the Woordfees, Onder ’n Bloedrooi Hemel, which is an adaptation of Annemarié van Niekerk’s memoir. It is dark, engaging, healing theatre. But I can’t be objective since she is my partner.

Which specific work do you return to again and again, and why?

I always seem to find inspiration and solace in music. The one album I return to again and again is The Colour of Spring by Talk Talk. It came out in 1986 and remains ahead of its time – utterly baffling, profound, boundary shifting and sublime. If you haven’t listened to it, do so. I have been listening to that album and its follow-up albums for 30 years, and I am still pleasantly startled by their uncompromising sublimity. The late Mark Hollis who led the band was truly a genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuSZjGn2AKE

What are your thoughts about the AI revolution?

I think we are all still trying to wrap our heads around AI and the inevitable impact it will have on all aspects of life as we know it. I work in the academic field and we are already experiencing first-hand the challenges AI represents in terms of written submissions.

In general, I think AI could be great for humanity in all fields of endeavour, but we all know already we are going to f*ck it all up grandly, aren’t we?

Any project you’re unveiling or wrapping up?

I am about to appear in season two of Recipes for Love and Murder. I am planning a book of my photographs and a new collection of Afrikaans poetry, both within the next year. DM

Mick Raubenheimer is a freelance arts writer.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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