Roger Ballen
American, born 1950
About
Roger Ballen
American, born 1950
Roger Ballen is known for his disquieting psychological portraits of rural inhabitants on the fringes of South African society. Ballen, who worked as a geologist and mining consultant before starting his career as a photographer, found inspiration for his work in the people he encountered as a mining prospector in the small villages of rural South Africa. Since then, his work has moved beyond observation and documentation toward abstraction and complex narratives. Often photographing at a warehouse for transients on the outskirts of Johannesburg, the photographs move beyond human subjects, and embark on an imaginative physiological journey, which blur the lines of fact or fiction.
Ballen has lived and worked in Johannesburg, South Africa for more than 30 years. In 2001, Ballen’s book Outland won the Best Photographic Book of the Year at PhotoEspaña. Ballen’s other monographs include Ballenesque: Roger Ballen, A Retrospective (2017), Roger Ballen: Resurrected (2016), The Theatre of Apparitions (2016), Asylum of the Birds (2014), Lines, Marks, and Drawings: Through the Lens of Roger Ballen (2013), Photographs 1969-2009 (2011), Animal Abstraction (2011), Boarding House (2009), Shadow Chamber (2005), Platteland (1994), Dorps (1986), and Boyhood (1979). Ballen’s photographs are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Outland
Roger Ballen
Dresie and Casie, twins, Western Transvaal, 1993
Pigment ink print
29 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. image on 35 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. mount
Roger Ballen
Study of boy and plant, 1999
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Cat Catcher, 1998
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Head Below Wires, 1999
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Man Drawing Chalk Faces, 2000
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Show Off, 2000
Pigment ink print
Shadow Chamber
Roger Ballen
Juxtaposed, 2004
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Skew Mask, 2002
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Twirling Wires, 2001
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Bitten, 2004
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Head Inside Shirt, 2001
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Cloaked Figure, 2003
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Shadow Chamber
Asylum of the Birds
Roger Ballen
Untitled, 2010
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Take Off, 2012
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Place of the Eyeballs, 2012
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Banner, 2009
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Ascension, 2013
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Audience, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Serpent Lady, 2009
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Alter Ego, 2010
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Asylum of the Birds
Boarding House
Roger Ballen
Mimicry, 2005
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Cut Loose, 2005
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Pathos, 2005
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Squawk, 2005
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Boarding House, 2008
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Cornered, 2004
Pigment ink print
Theater of Apparitions
Roger Ballen
Amulet, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Moonrise, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Assembly, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Effigy, 2007
Gelatin silver print
Roger Ballen
Gulp, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Blurp, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Collide, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Cosmos, 2010
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Face Off, 2010
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Farewell, 2010
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Gaps, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Ghostriding, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Giant, 2013
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Half and Half, 2012
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Hanging, 2012
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Outreach, 2012
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Panic, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Shadows and Strangers, 2010
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Streetwalkers, 2011
Pigment ink print
Roger Ballen
Waif, 2012
Pigment ink print