Roger Ballen

//It is difficult to explain this place, except that I think it exists in some way or another in most people’s mind.//

Roger Ballen was born in New York, and has lived and worked in South Africa since the late 1970´s. His mother worked as a photo editor at Magnum Photo Agency, New York, and as a teenager Ballen befriended the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, and Elliott Erwitt.

For many years Ballen worked as a geologist while documenting the small villages of rural South Africa and their isolated inhabitants. Ballen´s work has evolved from a documentary approach to something more abstract, metaphoric and introspective.

The South African hip-hop band ‘Die Antwoord’ asked Roger Ballen to direct ‘I fink you freaky’, a music video that has resulted in a broader global exposure for Ballen’s work. Mr. Ballen is currently working on his 10th book publication, which will be published by Thames & Hudson.

Mr. Ballen has had over 100 exhibitions worldwide, and his work is collected by more than 30 different museums, in Louisiana, Tate Britain and Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has an upcoming show at the Smithsonian in 2013. Fotografiska will present his work in a solo show, Spring 2014, ‘Theatre of the Absurd’, curated by PUG.