B_P_2015_04_

101

“His images literally

and figuratively

discuss the condition

of having one’s back

against the wall as an

attempt to emphasise

the marginalisation of

his subjects.”

—From Outland

101

Better photography

great masters

april 2015

Despite falling in love with the

medium early on, Ballen “emerged” as a

photographer only after he was fifty years

old. He credits his strong, recognisable

aesthetic style to this late emergence. “I had

been doing photography for 30 years before

I began making money from it. Since I was in

Johannesburg, away from the photographic

community, I didn’t know what the latest

trends were or what galleries were looking

for. This distance has helped me photograph

whatever I wanted, the way I wanted.”

From Photographer to Artist

Outland is perhaps Roger’s seminal work.

The motifs, use of wires, cracks on the wall...

even people’s odd relationship with their

pets that are seen in Outland can be seen

in his earlier works. “The initial images in

Outland, they have a documentary style to

them that is similar to my previous series

Platteland. However, around 1997, I started

thinking of myself as more than just a

photographer... as an artist-photographer.”

From 1986–2000, the period during

which Platteland and Outland were

photographed, South African society

was in turmoil and uncertainty. In 1984,

the National Party, which was the ruling

white government, passed the Apartheid

legislations. It gave white people more

privileges while curtailing the rights of the