Roger Ballen
Shadow Land
Manchester Art Gallery, Photography, Manchester, United-Kingdom
Friday March 30, 2012 - Sunday May 13, 2012 - Event ended.
Shadow Land is a major exhibition of work by internationally-acclaimed photographer Roger Ballen whose work offers a powerful social critique and an extreme, uncanny beauty. The exhibition explores three decades of Ballen’s career, charting the evolution of his unique photographic style and demonstrating the contribution he has made to contemporary photography.
One of the most important photographers of his generation, Roger Ballen was born in New York in 1950 but for over 30 years he has lived and worked in South Africa. In his work from the early 1980s to mid 90s he gained world recognition and critical acclaim with his powerful and controversial images of those living on the margins of South African society.
Although retaining the same distinctive aesthetic, (all his work is in black and white, square format) in the last decade Ballen’s work has evolved into a style he describes as ‘documentary fiction’ where the line between reality and fantasy is deliberately blurred. In doing so, his work enters into a new realm of photography; the images are painterly and sculptural in ways not immediately associated with photography.
Shadow Land will include previously unseen work from his new series Asylum and will be Ballen’s first solo show in a UK public gallery.
Fans of Ballen’s work will be interested in his recent collaboration with Die Antwoord, a futuristic rap-rave crew from South Africa who represent a new style called Zef. Ballen’s photography has had a formative influence on the band and led to him directing their latest video I fink u freeky poised to be a viral sensation and introduce Ballen’s work to an entirely new audience.
Please note: The exhibition will be closed on Sunday 15 April for essential maintenance works to the gallery atrium.
About Roger Ballen
In his work from the early 1980s to mid 90s Roger Ballen gained world recognition and critical acclaim with his powerful and controversial images of those living on the margins of South African society. Although retaining the same distinctive aesthetic, (all his work is in black and white, square format) in the last decade his work has evolved into a style he describes as "documentary fiction" where the line between reality and fantasy is deliberately blurred. In doing so, his work enters into a new realm of photography; the images are painterly and sculptural in ways not immediately associated with photography.
"Roger Ballen's new photographs are haunting additions to what we know and experience. They also, technically, modify the relations between fine art and photography and between the camera and its subject. In both ways, their value is in creating possibilities of seeing, expressing and making. They add to the genetic pool of opportunity, understanding and feeling. This is exhilarating, though it may seem paradoxical that the work itself is bleakly austere. But then, we don't just extend ourselves by wearing big smiles."
Robert Greig, Sunday Independent - South Africa
"In many ways, I'm calm and methodical. But in a deep place I'm trying to find ways of defining things. I'm 60 now and I'm in good health and I try to keep myself fit, but 60 is not 20 and my mind knows this. You can't fool the mind and mine is brooding. I'm trying to figure out how all this happened, and what it's all about. I always go back to these same questions and photography is the best way I've come up with to try to deal with these issues. It takes me further than anything else I do."
Roger Ballen, from an interview with Robert Enright for Mois de la Photo
event venue
Editor choice (SD)