Platteland

For nearly two decades, Roger Ballen, an American, photographed South Africa’s countryside, capturing symbols of place and people. Platteland reflects the irony of apartheid's failure to uplift even its privileged minority. Many subjects, trapped by poverty and alienation from societal change, reveal a haunting world previously obscured by white supremacy. Ballen's stark, stripped-down portraits offer profound intimacy. Platteland was published by William Waterman in 1994, Quartet Books, and St. Martin’s Press.