Works
Overview
Skew Mask, 2002
" I’ve been doing photography for 52 years now, so it's been a habit, a passion, a need, and a challenge. It's all these things - it's part of my life. It's like I don't ask questions about whether I should be doing or shouldn't be doing it. This is just part of Roger Ballen’s life - it’s like brushing your teeth in the morning. It's not a question for me, and I guess I wouldn't do it if I didn't get anything out of it." - Roger Ballen
In his contemplative and mysterious photographs, Roger Ballen skillfully combines the aesthetic of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Diane Arbus, Joel Peter Witkin and Walker Evans. Ballen’s images captivate viewers with their similarities to hand drawings and comment on contemporary life through the means of a black comedy. The pictures themselves, as with Joel PeterWitkin’s, are not portraits of dysfunctional people but rather portraits of a dysfunctional world. Ballen does not make these pictures to patronize his subjects, or to have them act as his performers as Arbus did. Rather, he embraces their strong features and bold expressions in a non-oppressive manner. Ballen’s photographs are visually stimulating constructions inviting interpretation and reflection.
Biography
Skew Mask, 2002
"I actually have the tools that allow me to find out things about myself, about my life, and I can use these tools to efficiently and artistically - poetically, get to places that I couldn't get to in my mind without them. So I guess I'm fortunate in that point of view. So it’s more than satisfying. It's almost religious." - Roger Ballen
Ballen was born in 1950 in New York and earned a BS in geology the University of California. Ballen earned a master’s degree in geology and a doctorate in mineral economics at the University of Colorado. He currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Selected Collections:
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Fotomuseum, München
LAMCA, Los Angeles
NOCA, San Diego
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Fine Arts, New York
National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
StedelijkMuseum, Amsterdam
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Publications
