Roger Ballen Photography

The concept of the ‘void’ has captivated me since my early 20’s.  It is an existentialist idea that ignites questions such as: What is my purpose? Where am I going? What am I doing? Does my work have meaning?  Absurdity is another crucial aspect of my work.  I’ve been involved in ‘Theater of the Absurd’ […]

 Often depicted as an integral feature of the continent, African wildlife, from iconic big beasts to its vast array of species, continues to attract millions of foreign travelers every year. A new art exhibition in the heart of Johannesburg is questioning the relationship between humans and animals on the continent, which spans centuries and is […]

Ballen argues through his provocative art installations and multimedia artworks that humans remain at the forefront of the destruction of African wildlife.

Roger Ballen’s solo exhibition “Call of the Void” is the eighth in a series of exhibitions at Museum Tinguely in Basel that respond to Jean Tinguely’s work “Mengele – Dance of Death”. Ballen’s show consists of two parts: The center of the exhibition space is dominated by a shack, a poor dwelling for people on […]

Boys Will Be Boys: A Celebration of Growing Up Male Full of roaring exuberant fellowship, a new book presents images of boys at play around the world.

“There’s no doubt that the whole visual world is totally oversaturated with imagery. I know a lot of people who do AI art. I see it on Instagram or Facebook and some of the images have stuck in my head,” says Roger Ballen, an American artist who lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. “So, I think […]

The world-renowned photographer’s new retrospective show at the Standard Bank Gallery, In Roger Ballen’s Johannesburg, curated by Dr Same Mdluli, is an astonishing trip through some of his best work since 1994, when he began to make images in the metropolis.

Around the gallery, there are these strange, captivating, surreal or sinister, depending on how you view it, mind-blowing visuals encapsulating Ballen’s photographic relationship with Joburg, dating back over four decades ago.

At times some of us feel a certain nostalgia and want to go back to our youth. We long to be boys or girls again, thinking that things were simpler in our youth. We imagine that life was more innocent and more harmonious than what we now face as adults. It is easy to forget […]

Ballen’s move from documentary (though always artfully composed) photography into art photography, and photos in which he stages his subjects within a constructed environment, may seem to reject the “decisive moment” seized from a living trajectory, but it’s there. He may put a great deal of work into his environments, after much finding, but they […]