Roger Ballen Selected For South Africa’s Section OF 2022 Venice Biennale

Originally a New Yorker, Roger Ballen went to South Africa as a geologist. Somehow, he got stuck on both photography and the country, spending the last thirty years or so making image there. Currently represented by Hamilton’s Gallery, in London, it was very pleased to announce Mr. Ballen’s acceptance into the Venice Biennale.

His early work clearly had political and social sharp edges that produced mixed reactions in the public eye. Elliott Erwitt and André Kertész were among his influences, especially the ideas that humor could be included, that photographers are in the first instance, artists, and that photographs can do much more than simply document reality.  You may have seen his books Asylum (2011), Shadow Chamber (2005), and Boarding House (2009).

Waif (detail), 2011, from Theatre of Apparitions by Roger Ballen, from Hamilton’s webite.