The World According to Roger Ballen

The World According to Roger Ballen
Author: Colin Rhodes
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-01-14
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 0500545219

This generously illustrated book catalogs Roger Ballen’s photographic work throughout his career and new installations created specifically for an exhibition at the Halle Saint Pierre, Paris. The World According to Roger Ballen, coauthored with Colin Rhodes, looks at Ballen’s career in the wider cultural context beyond photography, including his connections with and interest in art brut. It features photographs selected from across Ballen’s career, along with installations created exclusively for an exhibition at the Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, and examples of objects and works from Ballen’s own collection of art brut. Organized thematically, with texts by Colin Rhodes and an introduction and interview with Ballen by Martine Lusardy, the director of the Halle Saint Pierre, The World According to Roger Ballen is both a catalog of the first major exhibition of Ballen’s work in France, and an exploration of Ballen’s place within and connections to the wider context of modern and contemporary art.

Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal

Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal
Author: Roger Ballen
Publisher: National Library Australia
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2008
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 9780642276889

Over almost 30 years, Roger Ballen has produced some of the most compelling and thought-provoking images in contemporary photography. His work is unflinching, confronting and always deeply moving. With its roots in the photo-documentary tradition, Ballen's approach has expanded to become an unforgettable vision of the human condition.

Asylum of the Birds

Asylum of the Birds
Author: Roger Ballen
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-04-22
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 0500544298

A masterful new monograph from one of the most revered and highly collectible contemporary art photographers in the world Roger Ballen is one of the most original image makers of the twenty-first century. Asylum of the Birds showcases his iconic photographs, which were all taken entirely within the confines of a house in a Johannesburg suburb, the location of which remains a tightly guarded secret. The inhabitants of the house, both people and animals, and most notably the ever-present birds, are the cast who perform within a sculptural and decorated theatrical interior that the author creates and orchestrates. The resulting images are compelling and dynamic, existing somewhere between still life and portrait. They are richly layered with graffiti, drawings, animals, and found objects. In a world where photographers seek to avoid definition, Roger Ballen is a true original who not only defies genres, but has defined his own artistic space as well.

Outland

Outland
Author:
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-04-20
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 9780714868844

The seminal work by photographer and artist Roger Ballen, re‐released in an expanded edition with never‐before-seen images from Ballen’s archive. The culmination of nearly 20 years of work, Outland marked Ballen’s move from documentary photography into the realms of fiction and propelled him into the international spotlight. Disturbing, exciting and impossible to forget, Ballen’s images captured people living on the fringes of South African society. His powerful psychological studies influenced a generation of artists and still resonate today. First published in 2001, Outland is back in print and expanded to include 50 never‐before‐seen images from Ballen’s archive with illuminating new commentary from the artist himself.

Ballenesque

Ballenesque
Author: Roger Ballen
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-10-10
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 0500519692

An exploration of “the Ballenesque” over the four-decade-long career of this daring artist—representing an entirely fresh edit by Roger Ballen himself and featuring many previously unpublished images Roger Ballen is best known for his psychologically powerful and intricately layered images that exist in a space between painting, drawing, installation, and photography. Ballenesque is the first comprehensive retrospective of his work. Separated into four parts, Ballenesque takes readers on a chronological journey through Ballen’s entire oeuvre, including both iconic images and previously unpublished works. Part I explores Ballen’s formative artistic influences and his later rediscovery of boyhood through photography, culminating in his first published monograph, Boyhood, in 1979. Part II charts the period between 1980 and 2000, during which time he released his seminal monograph Outland. Part III covers the years 2000–2013, when Ballen achieved global recognition and his work began to veer away from portraiture altogether. Finally, in Part IV, Ballen reflects on his career. With more than 300 photographs and an introduction by Robert JC Young, this book provides both a new way of seeing Ballen’s work for those who already follow his career and a comprehensive introduction for those encountering his striking photographs for the first time.

The Theater of Apparitions

The Theater of Apparitions
Author: Roger Ballen
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-11-22
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 0500544646

An immersive new monograph from the critically acclaimed photographer Roger Ballen The Theatre of Apparitions is an immersive and groundbreaking new monograph by the critically acclaimed art photographer Roger Ballen. The author of numerous publications, including Asylum of the Birds and Outland, Ballen is best known for his psychologically powerful and masterfully composed images that exist in a space between painting, drawing, installation, and photography. This book is both a departure from his existing oeuvre and the culmination of his unique aesthetic linking image-making and theatrical performance. Separated into seven chapters or “acts,” these Ballenesque images take readers on a journey deep into the subconscious. Initially inspired by the drawings and marks people make on their environment, Ballen started to experiment using different spray paints on glass and then "drawing on” or removing the paint with a sharp object to let natural light through. The resulting images are like prehistoric cave-paintings: the black, dimensionless spaces on the glass are canvases onto which Ballen carves his thoughts and emotions. Fossil-like facial forms and dismembered body parts co-exist uncomfortably with vaporous, ghost-like shadows—these images have the capacity to shock, inspire, amuse, and even elate viewers. Timeless and innovative, earthly and otherworldly, physical and spiritual, his work transcends the traditional concepts of photography.

Roger Ballen: Shadow Chamber

Roger Ballen: Shadow Chamber
Author: Robert A. Sobieszek
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007-04-01
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 9780714847924

Striking, ambiguous images from Johannesburg-based photographer Roger Ballen.

Platteland

Platteland
Author: Roger Ballen
Publisher: St Martins Press
Total Pages: 135
Release: 1996
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780312141875

Stark duotone portrait photographs capture the hidden world of South Africa's impoverished white inhabitants of the "plattelands," revealing a ravaged world of social and economic isolation, disease, poverty, alcoholism, and abandonment.

Dorps

Dorps
Author: Roger Ballen
Publisher: Protea Boekhuis
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011-07-07
Genre: Architectural photography
ISBN: 9781869193942

Dorps: The Small Towns of South Africa is about a part of 'Old Africa' that is quickly disappearing, captured by an internationally renowned American photographer.

Lines, Marks, and Drawings

Lines, Marks, and Drawings
Author: Craig Allen Subler
Publisher: DelMonico Books
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2013
Genre: Art
ISBN:

From distinctive portraits and complex photographic tableaux to YouTube sensations, the work of prominent African photographer Roger Ballen is given a fresh perspective in this volume. For nearly half a century Roger Ballen has been shooting black-and-white film--a member of the last generation to work in that medium. He started his career taking portraits of rural Afrikaaners in their homes and has lately been moving toward more staged sets, and embellishing his photographs with expressionistic graffiti-type drawings. This retrospective book follows the development of line and drawing in Ballen's body of work, which is often characterized by complex interior arrangements of people, animals, and furnishings. In more recent work the artist has come out from behind the camera lens to engage with line more directly--including a luminous series of photographs that began with drawing on glass. Psychologically edgy and seductively beautiful images result. This volume also addresses the use of drawing and line in Ballen's newest work in videography. This astonishing collection reveals the breadth of Ballen's work, which moves fluidly between photography and drawing, harshness and beauty, raw expression and technical prowess.