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BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY

GREAT MASTERS

The various items that

people collect and hang

on their walls can tell you

a lot about the subject’s

personal life. At the

same time, Roger is not

interested in what would

be considered “kitschy”.

According to Roger,

the best pictures are

the ones you don’t have

words for, the ones that

leave you in a state of

contemplative silence.

“André Kertész

was an artist

first and a

photographer

second. He made

me realize that

photography

could do more

than document.”

—Roger Ballen

Better photography april 2015

Roger Ballen often

uses a harsh direct

flash to intensify the

dread and disturbance

an image may cause

the viewer.

that they are formally simple and complex

in their meaning.”

The Beginning of the Aesthetic

Roger probably has one of the best and

envious introductions to photography that

I have heard. In the 1960s, his mother joined

Magnum as a photo editor. “She frequently

worked with photographers like Henri

Cartier-Bresson, Elliot Erwitt and André

Kertész. They sent her books, prints and

would drop by home quite often,” he says in

a straightforward tone. “I was inundated by

beautiful images from a very young age.”

As a resulted Roger developed a strong

formal photographic technique, which

when combined with his penchant for the

absurd, has come to define his visual style.