Roger Ballen

Thanks to the research task given earlier on this term, I have discovered the wonderful photography of Roger Ballen. Born in New York, Ballen has lived in South Africa since the 1970s.

He made a specialty of photographing everyday live in the dorps (villages) of the Transvaal.

The pictures are controversial, because many of them feature “poor whites” at a time when apartheid was in place or just being dismantled.

Ballen says, in an interview with Gabriella Coslovicheach from The Age (clear here to view), his pictures can be interpreted however the reader wishes. He describes himself as an art photographer, rather than a political/social commentator.


I commend this approach, like his style and appreciate his talent!