Roger Ballen: Multiplex

profound ambiguity

US-born artist Roger Ballen studied psychology and geology; he talks about peering into the earth, and we see that he also peers into humanity. Living in South Africa since the late 70s Ballen photographed exclusively in the wild until he brought his camera and flash inside in the early 80s, finding motifs in the poor rural communities that he would use in later work. He does not sketch his scenes in advance, knowing that one can’t predict too much. People say his work is dark… “The reason most people say these pictures are disturbing is they can’t deal with their own repression.”

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