Roger Ballen is probably one of the most peculiar modern photographers. Only Joel-Peter Witkin can also compete for this title. For the first time, I saw his works being exhibited at the festival Month of Photography in Moscow in spring 2014.
Of course, I came across his pictures before but only after this event I was able to identify them as “works of the photographer”. And one should never miss an opportunity to hear from the author himself.
As Roger Ballen says, up to 50 years of age photography has been his hobby… Now photographer Roger Ballen was once a geologist, who traveled all over South Africa taking photographs of his journey. He snapped everything he saw in the cities he visited. Empty streets, and everything that happened there. In the course of 30 years.
But the things changed completely when he knocked on the door of one of the houses and witnessed a completely different world inside. It resulted in a very interesting and original series of photographs called Platteland.
His work resulted in a book which has itself elicited many discussions about the emergence of new esthetics in photography. And I definitely recommend to give it a read if you’re interested in photography. Even if you don’t find his works appealing, you will definitely remember them.
- Camera: Pentax 645
- Lens: Pentax 67 105mm F2.4 via Adapter 67-645
- Film: Kodak Tri-X 400
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