Roger Ballen
Born in the United States and based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Roger Ballen is considered one of the most influential and important photographers of his generation, having developed his photographic practice over more than fifty years.
Ballen has gained international recognition for his unique and powerful use of drawing, painting, and collage, alongside various sculptural techniques in elaborate installations, inventing a completely new hybrid aesthetic firmly rooted in the art of photography. His strange and extreme works confront the viewer, challenging them to embark on a journey into their own minds as the artist explores the deepest corners of his own.
Over the last fifty years, his distinctive style has evolved through the use of a simple square format, in intense and poetic black and white. His early works on display clearly reveal his connection with the tradition of documentary photography; however, in the 1990s he developed a style he defines as “documentary fiction.”
After 2000, the boundary between fantasy and reality became increasingly blurred in his work: Ballen integrated drawing, painting, collage, and sculptural techniques to create elaborate sets. People are often absent, replaced by photographs of individuals used as props, parts of dolls or mannequins, or, when they do appear, as disembodied hands, feet, and mouths that emerge disturbingly from walls or pieces of rags. The often improvised scenes are complemented by the unpredictable behavior of animals, whose ambiguity becomes fundamental to the overall meaning of the images.
In his artistic practice, Ballen has been progressively drawn to the possibilities of integrating photography and drawing. He has expanded his repertoire and enriched his visual language by integrating drawing into his photographic and video works, not only making a lasting contribution to the field of art, but also offering a powerful commentary on the human condition and its creative potential.
Roger Ballen has published over 25 books internationally and his works are included in more than fifty major museum collections worldwide. He is also the author of numerous acclaimed short films closely related to his photographic series and represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale in 2022.
Ballen is the founder and executive director of the Inside Out Centre for the Arts and the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography in Johannesburg, South Africa, institutions that promote awareness of international and African issues through artistic projects and educational programs.
In September 2025, Thames & Hudson published Spirits and Spaces, the artist’s first color book, which reveals his unique creative vision through color. In November 2025, Postcard in Rome published Inferno, a volume comprising sixty-eight photographs by Ballen inspired by Dante Alighieri’s thirty-four cantos, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s English translation (1867), with a preface by Didi Bozzini in collaboration with Marguerite Rossouw.
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