Roger Ballen

Exhibitions, Shows & Collections

Artist + Photographer + Director

Roger Ballen Foundation

References

The Roger Ballen Foundation is dedicated to the advancement of education of photography in South Africa. RBF creates support programmes of the highest quality to further the understanding and appreciation of the medium, particularly of Black and White photography.

Through its educational programme, the Foundation organises master classes, lectures and symposiums around the subject of contemporary photography and collecting photography.

Awards

• http://www.rogerballen.com/
• http://www.rogerballen.org/
• http://www.lensculture.com/ballen.html
• http://www.gagosian.com/artists/roger-ballen
• http://www.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/video/2012/february/02/roger-ballen-directs-i-fink-u-freeky/
• http://lightbox.time.com/2012/03/06/the-dark-side-roger-ballens-asylum/#1

• Finalist - Lucie Awards
• Curator/Exhibition of the Year: Roger Ballen: Photographs 1982 - 2009. Curated

by Dr. Anthony Bannon for the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York.

• Art Directors Club Award Photography - 2006
• Selma Blair Witch Project - New York Times Magazine, October 31st 2005
• Top 10 Exhibition, Matthew Higgs, Artforum-2004
• Citigroup Prize, finalist, UK - 2002
• Photographer of the Year, Rencontres d' Arles - 2002
• Top 10 Exhibition, Vince Aletti, Artforum - 2002
• PhotoEspana, Best Photographic Book of the Year, Spain - 2001
• Photo-eye, Best Documentary Title, Best Photography Books of 2001
• Sani Festival, Best Solo Exhibition, Greece, 2000
• Special mention: UNICEF Photo of the Year 2001

Pop Culture Reference?

Biography

• Born in 1950 New York City, NY
• Lived in Johannesburg, South Africa since 1970
• Began by documenting small villages in South Africa
• 1980s - early 90s documentary photography on the inhabitants
• Late 90s subjects began to act, thus going into the realm of fiction
• His photgraphy became more concept photography
• Bachelor Degree in Psychology from Berkeley
• Masters in Geology
• And has a PHD in Mineral Economics

Roger Ballen

Published Books

Doodlebob

• Boarding House, 2009
• Shadow Chamber, 2005
• Fact or Fiction, 2003
• Outland, 2001
• Cette Afrique', 1997
• Platteland, 1996
• Dorps: Small towns of South Africa, Clifton

Publications; 1st ed edition (1986)

• Boyhood, 1979

Themes

how the animal kingdom interacts with nature and humanity

Presentation By Cassie Hanks

Animals

Video

People

Momento Mori

2005

A Film By

Roger Ballen

"I Fink U Freeky"

Die Antwoord

2012

Directed by Roger Ballen

Installations

Dark Side of One’s Psyche

Skeletons

Playpen

North-West University

April 2012

Potchefstroom, South Africa

Right near the boarding house building, Ballen came across a house in which the owner allowed people to stay for very little money under one condition: he insisted that the birds he collects be allowed to fly all over the house, and that they don’t stay in cages. “The house is full of birds, ducks, chickens, pigeons, doves, whatever, different birds and they’re all over the house, flying from one room to the next,” Ballen recalls. “The people that live in the house are people from different aspects of the streets in South Africa—some people come from other places in Africa, some are unemployed, some are products of poverty, violence and anything else. I interacted with these birds and animals to create these photographs”

Nature

Museum Het Domein

May 2011

Sittard, Netherlands

"The pictures are of a psychological culture, a Jungian culture, if you will. It emanates from my own psyche... It’s a hard place to get to, honestly. It has taken me many years to get to that place and to define it visually."

-Roger Ballen

Humanity

Contemporary Art

"When I look at Contemporary art, one of most fundamental conclusions I've drawn is that people are completely alienated from the natural world and its reflected in the art. The most fundamental aspect of the human experience is lost, its relationship to the earth around it. And that's whats being lost every day in the contemporary world that we live in"

-Roger Ballen

Method

"The most philosophical crucial point photography makes about related to the human condition or life condition is that you're freezing time and no moment is ever the same."

-Roger Ballen

Started originally as documentary photographer that shot exterior shots with no interaction with the subjects. Going into concept photography, he interacted with the subject and nothing was ever sketched beforehand. Typically worked 12:30pm-5pm. Didn't put together the photo til he enters the space. Since then, all shots were interior and shot with a flash. Purposely used a deep depth of field since that is the way the eye sees with a high shutter speed so everything in the shot is in focus.