This new and expanded edition of Roger Ballen’s (born 1950) widely acclaimed 1979 debut photobook Boyhood, admired by André Kertesz, Bruce Davidson and Elliott Erwitt, features new and unpublished images taken by the photographer in the 1970s. In photographs and stories, Ballen leads us across the continents of Europe, Asia and North America in search of boyhood: boyhood as it is lived in the Himalayas of Nepal, the islands of Indonesia, the provinces of China, the streets of America. Each stunning black-and-white photograph—culled from 15,000 images shot during Ballen’s four-year quest—depicts the magic of boys revealed in their games, their adventures, their dreams, their mischief. More of an ode than a documentary work, Ballen’s first book is as powerful and current today as it was 43 years ago—a stunning series of timeless images that transcend social and cultural particularities.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited by Nadine Barth. Text by Roger Ballen.
Over the past 35 years, Johannesburg-based American photographer and painter Roger Ballen (born 1950) has developed a distinctively dark and eerie style—characterized by a simple square format and stark black and white—to create images of the South African social landscape and portraits of surreal vignettes.
In his latest volume Ballen expands on his longstanding predilection for unsettling interiors and spooky characters. Roger the Rat follows the life of a creature whose body is human but whose head is that of a rat. Ballen’s rat character interacts with mannequins, people and various objects in often cramped and oppressive rooms, in ways that defy explanation but seem at once humorous and sinister. This book gathers the series, made between 2015 and 2020.
Published by Kerber. Edited with text by Jan-Philipp Fruehsorge. Text by Claude d’Anthenaise, Stijn Huijts.
Unleashed brings together two very different artists: Johannesburg-based photographer Roger Ballen (born 1950) and Dutch draftsman Hans Lemmen (born 1959). Their collaboration reveals a universe of surreal truths born out of a dialogue between their respective mediums of photography and drawing.
Published by Kerber. Edited by Pauli Sivonen, Ville Lenkkeri. Text by Riikka Ala-Harja, Marguerite Rossouw, et al.
Resurrected is a multilayered installation by Johannesburg-based photographer Roger Ballen (born 1950), created in an abandoned family home in the Finnish woods. This publication documents the construction of this unique edifice, revealing Ballen’s original vision for the project.
Published by Reflex Editions Amsterdam. Introduction by Wim Pijbes.
Animal Abstraction collects one body of work by photographer Roger Ballen (born 1950). Enigmatic, beautiful and often disturbing, these black-and-white photographs are staged in desolate interiors where humans interact with animals to create mysterious tableaux that reflect Ballen’s fascination with the animal kingdom.
PUBLISHER Reflex Editions Amsterdam
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 12 x 12.25 in. / 100 pgs / 49 tritone.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 5/31/2012 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2012 p. 180
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789071848001TRADE List Price: $79.95 CAD $95.00
For more than 30 years now, American photographer Roger Ballen (born 1950) has been shooting portraits of the impoverished white population of rural South Africa. Likened to the work of master documentarians Walker Evans and Diane Arbus, Ballen's controversial photographs can be brutal, funny, tender and appalling. His day laborers and transients eek out a seemingly wretched existence in the country's so-called Platteland--a hermetically sealed world rarely captured on film. Ballen shoots exclusively in black and white, and portrays his subjects against the backdrop of their own living spaces, whose spartan interiors he transforms into claustrophobic, almost surrealistic stage sets, creating sculptural tableaux with wire, dilapidated furniture, animals and drawings. Published on the occasion of a retrospective at the Münchner Stadtmuseum, this monograph explores Ballen's extraordinarily expressive brand of photographic mythmaking.