Roger Ballen’s new project, which he realised in collaboration with director Ben Crossman once again manages to leave us with mixed feelings of great fascination and a little repulsion. Roger Ballen appears to want to break down all barriers yet again, this time with a series of photographs created in a house in the suburbs of Johannesburg. His theatrical morbid dramatisation depicts the inhabitants of the house, humans and animals, as well as leitmotif of birds. GoSee presents the film as a teaser. Thames & Hudson published his book Asylum of the Birds this spring.
Roger Ballen comments on his work: "I have been shooting black and white film for nearly fifty years now. I believe I am part of the last generation that will grow up with this media. Black and White is a very minimalist art form and unlike color photographs does not pretend to mimic the world in a manner similar to the way the human eye might perceive. Black and White is essentially an abstract way to interpret and transform what one might refer to as reality. My purpose in taking photographs over the past forty years has ultimately been about defining myself. It has been fundamentally a psychological and existential journey. If an artist is one who spends his life trying to define his being, I guess I would have to call myself an artist."