Life and times of photography legend Roger Ballen through a retrospective book
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
He has certainly worked hard over the years consistently producing photography works of hard quality if controversial. His is a journey of foresight and single-mindedness that has over the year paid handsomely. Whether you agree or disagree with the manner in which he represents the human condition through his photographs that he has produced over decades, there is no denying the fact that this PHD geology graduate-turned photographer, is one of the most important photographers of his generation worldwide.
Yes, some of his exhibitions that he has mounted over the years got people talking and they do not always agree with him, but is it not the point of being an artist with a mind of his own? For example his series about poor whites in the countryside of South Africa became controversial, as the assumption has always been that the poor of the poor are always black people in South Africa. But Ballen went out and proved to all and sundry that in fact there are also poor whites in the countryside, living rough and struggling. Those are pictures that some did not want to see, but are important pictures especially as they go against the popular narrative of the poor always being black and not white. He has also mounted other controversial exhibitions in recent years, some of which I had the privilege to attend.
For example, I had an opportunity to view Ballen’s exhibition, partly photography and partly paintings at Maboneng during the lockdown of 2021, and through that exhibition, one could tell that the artist is not afraid of experimentation. After all it is through experimentation and risking getting it wrong that an artist grows. Experimenation makes all of us anxious, afraid of failure, but following failure the chances of making the same mistakes in future becomes minimal.
Known mainly as a photographer, in that exhibition however he experimented with painting, mainly melding photographs and painting, resulting in an exhibition that challenged the viewer. Some may have even been disturbed as Ballen’s work tends to go to dark spaces of the human psyche. This is probably where his philosophy training becomes handy in his work mainly as a photographer and painter. He tends to test the capacity of a viewer to accommodate ideas that we normally find hard to accept in our daily human experience.
Many of his followers will therefore be happy that a book that attempts to look at Ballen’s career over the decades in the form of photographs is eventually out, published by JonathanBall Publishers locally. This is in celebration of Ballen’s work and achievements over the decades. This is a retrospective look at his body of work over the years.
About Roger Ballen and this retrospective book
Roger Ballen is one of the most important and original art photographers working today. He is best known for his probing, often challenging images that exist in a space between painting, drawing, installation and photography. Yet, until now, no comprehensive retrospective on this highly regarded artist has been released. Based on an entirely new appraisal of Ballen’s archive, one that looks beyond his monographic projects for the first time, Ballenesque takes the reader on a visual, chronological tour of the photographer’s entire oeuvre, including both the iconic images and previously unpublished works. At the heart of the book is Ballen’s own exploration of his style – of those particular qualities that make his work so compellingly his own.
Featuring reflective and engaging texts by the artist himself, Ballenesque offers a distinctly personal account of the photographer’s career to date. His reflections include rare and privileged insights into the artist’s photographic practice and the major influences that have helped to shape his worldview. Each of the key stages in Ballen’s creative journey is explored – a journey that, for Ballen, has been both an outward and inward exploration of the self.
With over 300 photographs and an introduction by cultural theorist and critic Robert J. C. Young, Ballenesque provides not only an entirely new way of seeing Ballen’s work for those already familiar with his career, but also a comprehensive introduction for those encountering his photographs for the first time. In this second, revised edition, Thames and Hudson adds two new chapters: one on Ballen’s colour photography, and another on his Covid-19 Lockdown drawings.
Ballen was selected to show his works at the South African pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale and will open to the public his museum The Inside Out Centre for the Arts in Forest Town Johannesburg in the first part of 2023.
South Africa’s national exhibition for Biennale Arte 2022 reflected the theme Into the Light which complements the overarching theme The Milk of Dreams.
Biennale Arte, often referred to as ‘the Olympics of the art world’, is a highlight of the international arts calendar. Biennale Arte kicked off in Venice, Italy, on 23 April and will run until 27 November.
.Ballenesque will be launched at the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, 1 Ducombe Road, Forest Town, 21 August, 2022 at 12noon.