12/17/2023 0 Comments Die antwoord i fink u ky and i like it![]() ![]() I’ve always been interested in animals, very specifically the animal mind and the human mind. Well I’ve been taking pictures of animals for a long time - about 30 years. You use objects and animals: rabbits, ducks, rats, lizards, pigs. There’s no way to describe the process in any concrete way. It’s a mixture between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. It doesn’t just come out of the spur of the moment. It’s like saying being a great athlete is hard work, dedication, passion and maybe genetics. I’ve always said that if you define my pictures with words other than enigmatic or mysterious, then the pictures are bad. I just relax and keep a focused mind and make the photographs. So, I don’t have any particular ideas about what I want to do. So, it’s not something that you can really predict. A lot of photography is about the unexpected happening during the time that you do the work. These are visual concepts, invariable concepts. Well, most of my series take about five years. When you do a series, what are you trying to achieve? How do you come up with your idea for the series? Beginning In 1995, I became much more focused and disciplined about taking pictures. ![]() It was really a landmark in terms of launching myself into photography on a more regular basis. But it generated a lot of publicity and fame, which gave me confidence that I was actually doing something that effected people. I was very antagonistically received here in South Africa. As I said, this book became quite famous with major shows and articles. I started doing this on a more regular basis when Platteland was published. Living in South Africa, you have no chance of selling photographs here in a millions years in any real way. So up until I was 55 years old, it was a passion and a hobby. Look, when I did Platteland, the book was published in 1995. Would you say it’s not until you did exhibitions and shows that you thought of yourself as an artist? (The book, Ballenesque: Roger Ballen: A Retrospective, can be ordered here.) I wouldn’t call it artwork until probably about 1996. I was sort of serious photographer from the early 1970 It was a form of expressing my viewpoint in the world. I’ve given the book a lot of thought, and have written about fifty pages for it. It would be interesting to mention in your article that Thames and Hudson Publishers is doing a retrospective book on my life in photography. I was always doing photography, because I did a photo book after that long trip. You became an artist around that time or a little bit afterwards? ©Roger Ballen, The Chamber of the Enigma, 2003 If my mother hadn’t been involved, I probably wouldn’t be in photography. I was introduced to these photographers as a young boy. ![]() This is how I actually got involved in photography because she was very passionate about it at the time. She had been working with people like Cartier-Bresson and Streichen and some of the other Magnum people. My mother worked at Magnum in the 1960s, and started one of the first photo galleries in New York in the early 1970’s, and died, unfortunately, in 1973. When did you get into art and photography? It was a special time in the 20th century. Well, it was a great time because it was the period of the counter culture, so it was a very exciting period to be in Berkeley. Then I went to Berkeley in California and got a Bachelor’s degree in the late 1960s. ![]() I spent the first five years in New York City, and then I moved to Westchester until I was 18. In this interview, I had the opportunity to get inside the thought process of the artist and his worldview. His innovative work has created a new adjective in the Art world: “ Ballenesque”. He has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries all over the world. Roger Ballenis well known fine art photographer who has been creating exciting imagery for over 50 years. Ken has been producing interviews for his Art and Photography blog, and he has kindly offered to share a his interviews with the Lenscratch audience. Today, we are sharing an interview that photographer and blogger, Ken Weingart conducted with photographer Roger Ballen. ![]()
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