Roger Ballen Photo Poche 140

Roger Ballen’s work (New York, 1950) is not easy to understand since it never allows any use of seductive elements. Although inhabited by an undeniable documentary and social strength, his body of work doesn’t belong to any precise photographic genre. It became, over the years, unquestionable and increasingly complex.
The poor and deeply rural South Africa is the cradle of Ballen’s photographic and artistic quest. Focusing progressively from the places to the people, from the people to the interior and from the interior to the details, he digs a mental and aesthetic scenery that has no equal in the photographic field.

« My photographs are only aspects, fragments of reality. Realities unknown and often hard to express. This is my reality, forget the subject. » Roger Ballen

in Dominique Eddé, Photopoche n°140, Actes Sud, 2012.