RogerBallen
One of the most influential photographic artists of the 21st century. His strange, extreme images ask you to come with him into your own mind, while he explores the deepest recesses of his.
Move to look · tap to lightBorn in New York City in 1950, Roger Ballen has lived in South Africa since 1982. His work began in documentary photography and evolved into the creation of fictional worlds that also take in film, installation, theatre, sculpture, painting and drawing.
Ballen describes his works as “existential psychodramas” that touch the subconscious mind and evoke the underbelly of the human condition.
Today I would like to thank Christophe Guye Galerie for the opportunity to talk with Roger Ballen about his exhibition, which brings together five series: Colour Work, The Theatre of Apparitions, Asylum of the Birds, Boarding House and Shadow Chamber.
Why Ballen matters
Five decades, six reasonsFrom documentary to “documentary fiction”
His work as a geologist took him into South Africa's small country towns. Knocking on doors, he found closed interior worlds that moved his photographs from social critique to metaphors for the inner mind.
A cast, not subjects
After 2000, the people he first documented on the margins of society became collaborators, a cast of actors staging psychodramas with him in Outland and Shadow Chamber.
A world with its own name
His aesthetic became a word: the Ballenesque, the title of his 2017 Thames & Hudson retrospective. He has published more than 25 books.
Into pop culture
His 2012 film with Die Antwoord, I Fink U Freeky, has been viewed more than 125 million times on YouTube, carrying his visual language far beyond the gallery.
The institutions
His work is in more than 50 major museum collections, including Tate. He represented South Africa at the 2022 Venice Biennale, and in 2023 opened the Inside Out Centre for the Arts in Johannesburg.
Still changing
After 50 years in black and white, in 2016 he began working almost exclusively in colour, a turn most artists of his standing would never risk.
The series
Shot square, on a 6 × 6 Rolleiflex · scroll →revised 2015
“It would be quite distressing to me if there was little or no response.”
Archival pigment print
60 × 60 cm (23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in.)
Edition of 7, plus 2 APs
Courtesy of Christophe Guye Galerie
The interview
Interview by Leila Antakly · 2023Why did you choose to explore colour photography after decades of black and white?
Leica provided me with a digital camera in 2016 to film my Ballenesque video. Up to that time, I had only shot with a 6 × 6 cm Rolleiflex camera using black-and-white film. During the filming I took a few shots in colour and, to my great surprise, I was very enthusiastic about the results. Consequently, after working in black and white for 50 years, I have been photographing almost exclusively in colour since then, and I have been very satisfied with the results.
What are your greatest inspirations to date?
My greatest inspiration has always been nature. Nevertheless, I have always said that one must not only be inspired by one's own work: inspiration has to be the result of hard work, discipline and focus.
What is one of the most memorable responses you've heard to your work?
After working for over five decades in this field, it is difficult to remember all the endless responses. Most importantly, it is common to hear that my work is psychologically powerful, dark, absurd and uncanny.
What was it about South Africa that made you want to settle there?
In 1974 I hitchhiked from Cairo to Cape Town, and in 1981 I received a PhD in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines, after which I married a South African woman. As South Africa was one of the best places to work in this field, I decided to move to Johannesburg in 1982, where I have lived ever since.
Is your goal as an artist still to have a positive, transformative effect on the people who view your work?
“My work has the uncanny ability to transform people's state of consciousness.”
I think it is of the utmost importance that my work has the uncanny ability to transform people's state of consciousness. It would be quite distressing to me if there was little or no response.
What would you like to say about A Journey through the Ballenesque?
The show at Christophe Guye Galerie is a very interesting exhibition, as it combines a number of my series and approaches over the past two decades: in particular, vintage photographs from Shadow Chamber and Boarding House, large pigment prints from Asylum of the Birds, my recent colour prints, and the Theatre of Apparitions lightboxes, which I showed at the Venice Biennale in 2022.
Last question: what does wellbeing mean to you?
I think it essentially means feeling that, during this short time on planet Earth, one is discovering, probing and coming to terms, in the best possible way, with the enigma of life.
Existential psychodramas
How Roger Ballen describes his workWatch
Roger Ballen on film
“Inspiration has to be the result of hard work, discipline and focus.”
Roger BallenExplore the full archive. And for the personal rants, opinions you didn't ask for and the occasional existential spiral, follow me on Substack.
RogerBallen
One of the most influential photographic artists of the 21st century. His strange, extreme images ask you to come with him into your own mind, while he explores the deepest recesses of his.
Move to look · tap to lightBorn in New York City in 1950, Roger Ballen has lived in South Africa since 1982. His work began in documentary photography and evolved into the creation of fictional worlds that also take in film, installation, theatre, sculpture, painting and drawing.
Ballen describes his works as “existential psychodramas” that touch the subconscious mind and evoke the underbelly of the human condition.
Today I would like to thank Christophe Guye Galerie for the opportunity to talk with Roger Ballen about his exhibition, which brings together five series: Colour Work, The Theatre of Apparitions, Asylum of the Birds, Boarding House and Shadow Chamber.
Why Ballen matters
Five decades, six reasonsFrom documentary to “documentary fiction”
His work as a geologist took him into South Africa's small country towns. Knocking on doors, he found closed interior worlds that moved his photographs from social critique to metaphors for the inner mind.
A cast, not subjects
After 2000, the people he first documented on the margins of society became collaborators, a cast of actors staging psychodramas with him in Outland and Shadow Chamber.
A world with its own name
His aesthetic became a word: the Ballenesque, the title of his 2017 Thames & Hudson retrospective. He has published more than 25 books.
Into pop culture
His 2012 film with Die Antwoord, I Fink U Freeky, has been viewed more than 125 million times on YouTube, carrying his visual language far beyond the gallery.
The institutions
His work is in more than 50 major museum collections, including Tate. He represented South Africa at the 2022 Venice Biennale, and in 2023 opened the Inside Out Centre for the Arts in Johannesburg.
Still changing
After 50 years in black and white, in 2016 he began working almost exclusively in colour, a turn most artists of his standing would never risk.
The series
Shot square, on a 6 × 6 Rolleiflex · scroll →revised 2015
“It would be quite distressing to me if there was little or no response.”
Archival pigment print
60 × 60 cm (23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in.)
Edition of 7, plus 2 APs
Courtesy of Christophe Guye Galerie
The interview
Interview by Leila Antakly · 2023Why did you choose to explore colour photography after decades of black and white?
Leica provided me with a digital camera in 2016 to film my Ballenesque video. Up to that time, I had only shot with a 6 × 6 cm Rolleiflex camera using black-and-white film. During the filming I took a few shots in colour and, to my great surprise, I was very enthusiastic about the results. Consequently, after working in black and white for 50 years, I have been photographing almost exclusively in colour since then, and I have been very satisfied with the results.
What are your greatest inspirations to date?
My greatest inspiration has always been nature. Nevertheless, I have always said that one must not only be inspired by one's own work: inspiration has to be the result of hard work, discipline and focus.
What is one of the most memorable responses you've heard to your work?
After working for over five decades in this field, it is difficult to remember all the endless responses. Most importantly, it is common to hear that my work is psychologically powerful, dark, absurd and uncanny.
What was it about South Africa that made you want to settle there?
In 1974 I hitchhiked from Cairo to Cape Town, and in 1981 I received a PhD in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines, after which I married a South African woman. As South Africa was one of the best places to work in this field, I decided to move to Johannesburg in 1982, where I have lived ever since.
Is your goal as an artist still to have a positive, transformative effect on the people who view your work?
“My work has the uncanny ability to transform people's state of consciousness.”
I think it is of the utmost importance that my work has the uncanny ability to transform people's state of consciousness. It would be quite distressing to me if there was little or no response.
What would you like to say about A Journey through the Ballenesque?
The show at Christophe Guye Galerie is a very interesting exhibition, as it combines a number of my series and approaches over the past two decades: in particular, vintage photographs from Shadow Chamber and Boarding House, large pigment prints from Asylum of the Birds, my recent colour prints, and the Theatre of Apparitions lightboxes, which I showed at the Venice Biennale in 2022.
Last question: what does wellbeing mean to you?
I think it essentially means feeling that, during this short time on planet Earth, one is discovering, probing and coming to terms, in the best possible way, with the enigma of life.
Existential psychodramas
How Roger Ballen describes his workWatch
Roger Ballen on film“Inspiration has to be the result of hard work, discipline and focus.”
Roger BallenExplore the full archive. And for the personal rants, opinions you didn't ask for and the occasional existential spiral, follow me on Substack.
