Media

Featured in The Sydney Morning Herald | A Second Chance

I’m pleased to share this recent Sydney Morning Herald feature, “A second chance: how do organ donations work?” The piece touches on the extraordinary human generosity behind organ donation and the lives changed through it. I’m grateful to have been included in a story that brings such an important subject into public view. Read the article here: A second chance: how do organ donations work?

Media feature: Art & Style Magazine Ralph Kerle - Creative Reflections

The Spring 2025 issue of Art & Style profiles Ralph Kerle’s remarkable creative journey — from theatre and cabaret in 1970s Melbourne to his international recognition as an abstract fine art photographer. Highlighting his inspiration from water reflections, global exhibitions, and commissions for Louis Vuitton, the article celebrates the opening of his new gallery in Manly and his vision as a contemporary water colourist. Read the full article in Art & Style Magazine.

“Channel 9 Sunday Today: Celebrating National Eye Tissue Week with Dr. Lyon Robinson & Ralph Kerle

In celebration of National Eye Tissue Donation Awareness Week, I was honoured to appear on Channel 9’s Sunday Today Show with my eye surgeon, Dr. Lyon Robinson. This six-minute feature is more than a media story—it’s a deeply personal journey. Together, we shared the importance of sight, the life-changing role of tissue donation, and my own experience of living and creating art with keratoconus. I’m grateful to Dr. Robinson and the medical community who dedicate themselves to preserving and restoring vision, and to Channel 9 for shining a light on this vital cause.

A Vision Beyond Sight: Ralph Kerle’s Story in Hazen’s Out of Bounds

A Vision Beyond Sight, directed by Mustafa Allawi and produced by Hazen, offers a moving glimpse into my journey as an artist living with keratoconus—an eye condition that has shaped how I see the world, and ultimately, how I create. Part of Hazen’s Out of Bounds documentary project, the film aims to tell stories that move, matter, and make change. I’m honoured to be featured among these powerful voices, and deeply grateful for the team’s commitment to raising awareness about eye health and the life-changing impact of tissue donation. Watch the film and share it to support the cause.

The Mercurial Photos of Ralph Kerle - Trophies or Gifts

by Dr Gary Willis, artist, academic and artistic confidante. It is a question that I imagine most photographers must have faced, ‘Do I hunt my images down like a trophy or do they offer themselves up to me like gifts?’  Several years ago Ralph Kerle was a recreational kayacker.  He found paddling around the tidal backwaters of Middle Harbor on Sunday mornings gave him tremendous peace of mind.  That’s all – he had no other agenda. One such Sunday morning Ralph was religiously paddling between Seaforth and Castlecrag; the waters were mercurial, not a breath of wind nor a cloud in the sky.  Suddenly he was stuck by an image waving at him through the water as if in a mirror gently rolling with the swell.  It was the reflection of a moored yacht.  The vividness of the image left him spellbound.  Eventually he reached for his phone, opening his camera app. framed-up the image took a snap and promptly forgot about it. It was sometime before he got around to uploading the shot to his hard drive but when it opened up on his monitor he was staggered by the image.  It wasn't the scene he had remembered.  The camera had stripped the image of all familiarizing context and left an image with a life of its own.  Since then Ralph has been mastering his cameras and developing elaborate processes to facilitate such images.  We might be tempted to imagine the photographer out on Middle Harbor hunting down his images like trophies; but that is not how Ralph describes it.  Ralph recognizes his practice has evolved on the basis of a two-fold process; 1. The act of kayaking, as a meditational practice of clearing the mind and letting go. 2. The process of photography as awaiting the moment when the landscape calls for its capture. The question that Ralph muses upon is a variant on the chicken and the egg conundrum: Is it the state of mind that enables him to recognize these images or do the images offer themselves in response to his mindset.  Clearly the images exist independent of the artist but without a specific mindset, Ralph wonders if he would ever be able to see them. I am beginning to think these images are generated from a liminal space somewhere between my primordial subconscious and the ephemeral real that defines our unique existential experience?  Have I, through the deeply meditational experience of kayaking, solo on Sydney Harbor, tapped into a source that is otherwise lost to our everyday consciousness?  And if so what is this mysterious phenomenon – how can I define it? Ralph credits the nascent sensitivity that comes of his meditational outlook for his ability to recognize these images; is it only in this state that the landscape offers itself up to his camera.  Ralph has no illusions about himself as the creator; that role clearly belongs to nature, he candidly explains.  Ralph sees himself, as the one fortunate enough to have to have been ‘given’ the image and here is that question of ‘gift’.  Derrida maintains by definition ‘gift’ cannot not belong to the exchange economy.  One cannot barter for a gift; a gift is not only impossible it is ‘The Impossible’, he explains evoking George Bataille.[1] Ralph’s mission onto Middle Harbour in his kayak on his regular paddles entails a letting go.  In effect he gives everything away for that time out.  These have been the terms of his deliverance for some years now.  It is not an offering made in hope of exchange, but a sacrifice made to his meditation without hope or expectation.  This act of sacrifice is what sets in train the transformation of his state of mind and only in this state can he seem to appreciate the gifts of nature.    Henry Hart, founding editor of Vesrse poetry journal and poet himself, acknowledges the ‘gift’ entailed in all art & poetry sets in train a moral force that engenders an equal and opposite response. The work of art exists between two economies, he explains, the gift economy and the market economy.  However, although a work of art can exist without a market, Hart insists, ‘a work of art without gift is not a work of art’.[2] Gary Willis PhD Artist and Academic (Montague 2016) [1] Jacques Derrida ‘The Gift of Death’, ( USA, Chicago University Press , 1995,) [2] Henry Hart, ‘Poetry as Gift,’ Swanee Review, Vol 122- No. 1 Winter 2014. (Johns Hopkins University Press,) Pp 55 74..

Ralph Kerle “The indeterminate sublime”

By Vilnius Events Nature becomes the artist. Ralph Kerle becomes the interpreter. Australian photographic artist Ralph Kerle captures the unseen: spontaneous images created by reflections on water while kayaking. No digital editing – just the world as it is, at its most poetic and abstract. The works evoke the spirit of Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, bridging photography and abstract expressionism. Exhibited worldwide: Berlin, Dubai, Palm Beach, Portugal, Rothko Art Centre in Latvia. One of his works was even commissioned by Louis Vuitton for their Sydney space. Join an inspiring evening with the artist himself – a chance to experience his creative process and purchase certified, signed original works. A rare encounter with contemporary photography that resonates with silence and depth. Full Article Here

Art Palm Beach, USA

A short film on Art Palm Beach, Florida, USA 2020, its 23rd year of art exhibitions highlighting Ralph Kerle's art. The forerunner of Art Miami, Art Palm Beach's new Director and Co-Owner Corey Hampson talks about the 2020 fair and his plans for the future of this famous art fair.

Australian Transparency Portal

Australian National Maritime Museum Annual Report Read the listing contained in the Australian Federal Government Transparency Portal on the Art of Navy commission Full Article

Dr. Con Petsoglou and renowned photographer Ralph Kerle discuss how illusions shape our reality.

Local Artist Finds Inspiration in Middle Harbour and Exhibits Around the World

Kuring Gai Living Full Article Ralph Kerle is a true local success story. The Willoughby artist, like so many, struggled to find purpose after retirement. Always creative, when kayaking in Middle Harbour he was struck by the patterns made by the reflection of the water onto the boats moored there. His photographs of that subject have since been exhibited all over the world, including being recognised as an emerging artist at Berlin Art Week, being commissioned by Louis Vuitton, and invited to take part in a residency in Latvia. Here we chat to Ralph about his inspirational story. What was your career and life prior to becoming a photographic artist? Have you always worked in creative fields? I have spent my entire life working creatively in the creative industries. I graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts majoring in dramatic art in the 80s. I established a reputation as a creator of multi-media performance events before multi-media was highjacked by software technology companies. Multi-media performance in the 80s involved creating a synthesis of live performance and technology using large scale slide projection to create highly visual settings and what was then revolutionary moving lights to create atmosphere. Think large scale mirror balls, laser lights, strobes, neons, rock concerts, dance performances etc. This practice is what gave me the eye for the single image artwork I am now creating. You describe battling depression after retirement and the relief and solace you found on the water while kayaking around Middle Harbour. How crucial was this activity to your recovery?  A true creative never really retires. They instead lose purpose in their creative journey. The creative world is littered with examples: Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath, Marilyn Monroe are just a few of the better-known names who lost their purpose after highly successful careers and paid the ultimate price for that loss – suicide. I think the same can apply to people that have retired as well. Creativity and use of the imagination is known as one of the great panaceas for depression in mental health. Start externalizing creatively and the mind stops the continuing internal conversation to which there is no answer. Physical activity in nature stimulates externalization in our brain. Kayaking the natural beauty of Middle Harbour lifted the unanswerable internal darkness for me and opened up new pathways of thinking. Kayakers in beautiful Middle Harbour, where Ralph Kerle draws his inspiration. Image: Unsplash While exploring Middle Harbour you began to notice beauty in the way the water reflected against surfaces such as the many boats moored there. Tell us more about what made you interested in this. I wanted to document the experience of the external and new thinking I was sensing. I started to take shots with my iPhone of the fully formed abstract reflections the light was creating on the surface of the water. I posted some of the photos with no explanation except for a title to my Facebook friends. The response was totally unexpected and highly encouraging. Surprising as my peer group of actors, artists, set designers, film makers are cynical and hardnosed. Simultaneously I started to recognize the fully formed reflections seemed like representations or homages to many of the modern masters such as Jackson Pollock, Mondrian, Monet, Dali, Rothko even Brett Whiteley. Had I stumbled onto something serendipitously? Offshore Aerial View – Long Bay, Middle Harbour Source: Ralph Kerle Art Facebook You began taking photographs of these reflections – at what point did you realise other people may be interested in and appreciate your work? I was taken aback by the immediate reaction viewers seemed to have to the artworks. Words such as peaceful, beautiful, magical, stunning were thrown around. Not words I had expected. These words seemed to come from a deeper experience of not instantly recognizing the content of the photographs as viewers tried to articulate what they were seeing and feeling. The conversations became more interesting and informative when I asked viewers what it is they thought they were seeing. In almost a decade, with only one exception, viewers have failed to correctly identify what the content of my photographs is at first glance. When I sold 11 out of 16 works at my first exhibition in 2013 it seemed people wanted to buy into this mysterious visual experience – a strong sense the artistic process was working. What has been some of the favourite feedback you have received about your art? The feedback I have enjoyed most is that the work is aesthetically beautiful and a source of constant peaceful and calming meditation and inspiration. That viewers are experiencing the same emotions and feelings as I do when I create the art is affirming in a very personal way. How regularly are you out on the water in Middle Harbour? Are there certain areas you particularly enjoy (where do you set off from, for instance)? I try to be on the water in Middle Harbour at least three times a week all year round. I launch at Tunks Park, Northbridge and have two regular routes I follow that over the years have provided wonderful sources of inspiration – Balmoral via the Spit and return and Roseville Marina and return. Weather conditions and the time of day play a large role in finding potential source material. People will often assume early morning is the best time whereas 9.00am – midday when the sun is at a higher angle to the earth is best. There needs to be little wind and cloudy days are surprisingly fruitful offering a silver water surface where colours register more strongly than the normal deep blue water surface. Clontarf, Seaforth, Beauty Point, Sailors Bay and Long Bay have consistently been my favoured locations. Your art is even more impressive given you are legally blind in one eye, and have undergone a corneal transplant in the other. Do you believe that your eye condition actually enhances your artistic endeavours? My eye condition has played a huge role in what is unique in the works. I have written a blog on this entitled the Good Eye that can be found at https://www.ralphkerlesart.com/journal/2018/11/29/a-good-eye to explain in detail how my eye condition has affected my creativity. Ralph Kerle with the Australian Ambassador to Portugal, Anne Plunkett, who opened his exhibition at Espaço Espelho d’Água, Lisbon Portugal, 2016 Tell us about where your work is available and the exhibitions you have been part of. I have had exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Lisbon, Riga, Berlin and Palm Beach, Florida USA since my first exhibition in Willoughby in 2012, I was selected as one of 42 emerging artists in Europe for Berlin Art Week 2018. In 2019 I was awarded a commission entitled “The Art of Navy” from the Royal Australian Navy that resulted in a major solo exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum. This exhibition is now under negotiation for an Australian national regional tour commencing in 2021. I was commissioned in 2019 by Louis Vuitton to provide all the artwork for their retail stores in the new David Jones flagship store George Street, Sydney and am honoured to be considered globally as a Louis Vuitton artist. Selection by the Executive Director and Curator at the Mark Rothko Art Centre in Latvia in 2020 as a guest international artist with a three months residency in their Baltic and Central European cultural programme has been a real highlight in my career to date only to be cut short by the pandemic. The date has now been moved to 2022 Current work is available for viewing at my new exhibition gallery Ralph Kerle Gallery at the Cosmopolitan Centre in Double Bay 7 days from 12.00 – 8.00pm and at my studio in Willoughby by appointment. Ralph Kerle GalleryCosmopolitan CentreShop G7/8 – 22 Knox Street Double Baywww.ralphkerlesart.com

A Sea of Images

BY MIKE O’CONNOR View PDF here

I go fishing for reflections

Weekend Australian Magazine