Sharp shooter keeps eye on the ball
SA photographer Dale Yudelman was let loose in Cleveland, Ohio. He tells Tymon Smith of his brush with the law, a lucky baseball moment and how an open mind produced in a series of arresting images
WHILE taking pictures at a baseball game in Cleveland, Ohio, recently, veteran South African photographer Dale Yudelman was briefly interrogated by the city’s police.
An all-too-familiar experience for someone who began his career as a photojournalist for The Star newspaper in Johannesburg in the 1980s, but not an expected one at a sports event in the US in 2014.
“I was taken away for questioning. After an hour of interrogation, I was forced to delete a number of images and set free with a warning that I was under surveillance. I re- turned to watch the remainder of the game, upset and angry,” said Yudelman.
A few minutes later, he caught an out-of-field ball. “Apparently this is a very lucky omen, so the night ended on a positive note.”
Yudelman spent September to November in the city while on an artists’ residency at the Cleveland Foundation. For the programme, artists from around the world are invited to explore the city and produce work related to Cleveland, while teaching new skills to students and sharing experiences of their home countries.
Yudelman used his 2012 series, Life Under Democracy, pho- tographs taken with his iPhone and exploring post-apartheid South Africa, as a jumping-off point in his discussions.
He lived in the US, mostly in Los Angeles, for several years in the ’80s and ’90s, and so had some experience of American culture and customs, but he arrived in Ohio’s second largest city “without any agenda” and intending to “keep an open mind”.
However, perhaps because of his background in South African photojournalism, the images “end up being a social or political commentary of the times”. Unlike his Life Under Democracy series, these images were taken on a rangefinder camera, small, compact and on his hip wherever he went. He was mindful of the universal rules: that one needs to be sensitive to people’s space and ask permission to photograph whenever possible.
The resulting images, together with his students’ work, culminated in an exhibition at the Waterloo Arts Gallery in Cleveland recently.
In a career that’s spanned two very different eras in his homeland’s history, Yudelman shows no sign of putting the brakes on the natural curiosity and sly sense of humour that have characterised his work.
He looks forward to getting back to Cape Town, reconnecting with friends and family. “I might even take a day off and hit the beach. But I’ll have my camera with me, just in case.”