Edition 2017

Roger Ballen

Born 1950, New York, United States. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ballen is one of the most important photographers of his generation. Over the past thirty years his distinctive style of photography has evolved using a simple square format in stark and beautiful black and white. In his earlier works his connection to the tradition of documentary photography is clear but through the 1990s he developed a style he describes as “ballenesque”. His latest release is The Theatre of Apparitions. In a departure from his existing oeuvre, intricately layered images occupy a space between painting, drawing and photography linking image-making and theatrical performance. In 2017, Thames & Hudson will publish Ballenesque, a major retrospective of his collected works.