Roger Ballen (born 1950 in New York) is one of the most important photographers of his generation. His work, which spans five decades, began in the field of documentary photography but developed into a distinctive fictionalized world that also integrates the media of film, installation, theater, sculpture, painting and drawing. Marginalized people, animals, found objects, wires and childlike drawings populate the untraceable worlds in Ballen’s artworks.
C.G. Jung’s concept of the “collective unconscious”, the Theater of the Absurd by Samuel Beckett and existential philosophers such as Sartre and Heidegger became formative for the development of his artistic style. In his work, these psychological studies move from documentary photography into the realm of fiction, creating a moment between fact and fiction. The characters become actors performing on elaborate stage sets, graffiti, wires and other materials become elements of the photographed space and the play. Ballen’s work leaps into a metaphorical, surreal dimension with multiple conscious and unconscious meanings, focusing on the interactions between people, animals and objects. His works confront the viewer, inviting them to join him on a journey into their own psyche as he explores the deeper recesses of his own.
Roger Ballen has created a number of acclaimed and exhibited short films. The 2012 music video ‘I Fink You Freeky’, made for South African hip hop band Die Antwoord, has been viewed over 125 million times on YouTube. He has moved his work into the realm of sculpture and installation, his installation ‘House of the Ballenesque’ at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2017 was voted one of the best exhibitions of 2017. In 2018, another installation, “Roger Ballen’s Bazaar/Bizarre,” was created in an abandoned shopping center at the Wiesbaden Biennale.
Ballen has published over 25 books internationally. His works are in more than 50 of the most important international museum collections. Roger Ballen represented South Africa at the Venice Arte 2022 Biennale in Italy. He founded and built the Inside Out Centre for the Arts in Johannesburg to promote African photography and art through exhibitions and educational programs.
