Ruphin Coudyzer

Ruphin Coudyzer (1948-) is a photographer and musician.

Biography

Born Ruphin Maurice Coudyzer on 30 March, 1948 in Waregem in West Flanders, Belgium, where he completed high school at the Heilig Hart College Waregem, then went to university to study classical philology for one year, then switched to a two year Commercial and Secretarial Degree.

At age 13 he had obtained his first guitar and founded his first four piece rockband at the age of 14 (called "The Silhouettes", later renamed "The Phantoms"). A more serious rock/underground band "All Of Us", followed after four years, and they performed until his military service call up in 1970.

Armed with his training, he came to SA in August 1971 and got a job as safe custodian and rights department in a stockbroking company (National Board Of Executors) in Johannesburg.

However, he soon tired of this after one and a half years, so he bought a camera and taught himself photography - a career that led him to become one of the more highly rated photographers in the country and certainly one of its most most prominent theatre and arts photographers.

He retired to Kleinmond, Western Cape, South Africa, moving to The Strand in 2023.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

A superb craftsman, perhaps the best known in theatrical circles as the chronicler of Johannesburg’s Market Theatre (the 1970s-1990s) and of the Grahamstown Festival.

He actually did the photography for productions by numerous other performers and companies as well, including presentations by Andrew Buckland, Committed Artists, Handspring Puppet Company, Junction Avenue Theatre Company, Mannie Manim, Mbongeni Ngema, Robyn Orlin, Paul Slabolepszy and Pieter Toerien.

For more details of his portfolio, see his Facebook entry at https://www.facebook.com/Ruphin.Maurice.Coudyzer/photos