In collaboration with Marguerite Rossouw

The Theatre of Apparitions - Roger Ballen

Release: Thames & Hudson Ltd,, London

A groundbreaking, immersive new monograph from Roger Ballen, one of the world's most original and critically acclaimed art photographers. Introduction by Colin Rhodes.

 

He is one of the most original image-makers of our times. Always seeking to push the boundaries of photographic practice he has created an aesthetic and artistic vision unlike any other contemporary photographer. The Theatre if Apparitions is Ballen's groundbreaking new monograph.

With a career spanning over four decades, Roger Ballen is best known for his psychologically powerful and masterfully composed images that exist in a space between painting, drawing, installation and photography. The Theatre if Apparitions is both a departure from his existing oeuvre and the culmination of his unique aesthetic linking image-making and theatrical performance. Separated into seven chapters or 'acts', these Ballenesque images take readers on a deep journey into their subconscious.

lnspired by the sight of hand-drawn carvings on blacked-out windows in an abandoned warnen's prison, Ballen started to experiment using different spray paints on glass and then 'drawing on' or removing the paint with a sharp object to let naturallight through. The results are like prehistoric cave- paintings: the black, dimensionless spaces on the glass are canvases onto which Ballen carves his thoughts and emotions. Fossil-like facial forms and dismembered body parts co­ exist uncomfortably with vaporous, ghost-like shadows - these images have the capacity to shock, inspire, amuse and even elate viewers. Timeless and innovative, earthly and otherworldly, physical and spiritual, his work transcends all traditional concepts of photography.


Author
Roger Ballen is the recipient numerous awards, including 'Photographer of the Year' at Rencontres d' Arles in 2002 and 'Photography Book of the Year' for Outland at Photo Espaiia in 2001. Thames & Hudson published his monograph Ao/lum if the Birds in 2014.

 

Book is published 29 September 2016
 

98 illustrations
Size: 24.0 x 17.0 cm
Hardback
Extent: 192pp
ISBN: 9780500544648

 

www.thamesandhudson.com

 

 

Kulturexpress   ISSN 1862-1996

 

Octobre 25, 2016