by Savanna Douglas @GoodThingsGuyJune 1, 2026 Photo Credit: Marguerite Roussouw The short film, an excellent piece of homegrown art, challenges us to see the world and our own minds differently. South Africa (01 June 2026) – Roger Ballen is a name most South African art lovers hold in high regard. For nearly six decades, the Joburg-based photographer has created a dark, fascinating style so distinct it has its own name – ‘Ballenesque.’ The broader public might recognise Bal

Gadget Stream of the Day Roger Ballen’s eerie art debuts on YouTube The short film ‘Spirits and Spaces’ follows a lone spirit’s journey through a sequence of Ballenesque rooms. Published on 2 June 2026 A world of absurdity, chaos, and subconscious imagery takes shape in Spirits and Spaces, a new experimental short film on YouTube. The film is inspired by the book of the same name by world-renowned photographer and artist Roger Ballen. Both works explore the strange psychologi

Gabriella Blumberg Translates Roger Ballen’s Surreal Imagery Into Motion By Underground Press Published Friday, 29 May 2026 12:04 An experimental short film, Spirits and Spaces, inspired by the book of the same name by world-renowned photographer and artist Roger Ballen—his first publication in colour—enters the strange psychological terrain that defines the Ballenesque: a world that is chaotic, absurd, and deeply subconscious. Now available to view on YouTube, the film was c

2026-05-22 Five Hands, 2006 - Roger Ballen On June 6 at 18:00, the contemporary photography platform ISSP will host a public lecture and audience meeting with the world-renowned photographer Roger Ballen. The event is organized in collaboration with the Mark Rothko Art Centre in Daugavpils, where a major retrospective exhibition of the artist will open the day before. During the meeting, it will be possible to purchase the artist’s books and receive his autograph. Roger Balle

Alms, 2023 Roger Ballen is one of today's most influential and distinctive photographers, with his work spanning over four decades. His extreme and absurd style, notoriously in stark black and white (coined Ballenesque), is vividly brought to life by incorporating color for the first time in his most recent publication, Spirits and Spaces. His work has always been surreal and confrontational, but color reflects reality in a way the previous black and white style couldn't. Bal

Maverick Life BOOK EXCERPT Spirits and Spaces: An exploration of the human psyche Roger Ballen: Spirits and Spaces creates a world where animals and art brut-like drawings dominate, and humanity is reduced to obscure figures or fragmented body parts. By Roger Ballen 11 May 2026 Roger Ballen: Spirits and Spaces. (Images: Thames and Hudson) Roger Ballen’s latest publication, Spirits and Spaces, is a photobook presenting universes that are

Superman, 2018 The unsettling and profoundly unique universe of Roger Ballen lands at the Museum Dr. Guislain from April 4 to September 13 with the exhibition Roger Ballen. Drawing meets Photography , a proposal that invites you to immerse yourself in one of the most radical perspectives in contemporary art. Entering this exhibition is like crossing a threshold into the human psyche. Its images—confusing, recognizable, absurd, and yet disturbingly real—are not simply observe

The retrospective exhibition “Shadows of the Mind” brings to Romania for the first time the works of internationally renowned photographer Roger Ballen. Presented at Scanteia+ in Bucharest, the exhibition opens on Thursday, March 26, at 6:00 PM, in the presence of the artist and the curator. The project is a traveling exhibition that has been presented, in various formats, in more than twelve major cultural institutions worldwide, including Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (2005)

Roger Ballen Spirits and Spaces: The First Color Monograph and a Descent into the Ballenesque Mind Roger Ballen’s Spirits and Spaces marks his first major exploration of colour after five decades in black and white, expanding the Ballenesque universe into a haunting psychological landscape where space, instinct, and the unconscious collide. Roger Ballen: Spirits and Spaces is a decisive book within the trajectory of one of the most influential photographers working today. I

WRITTEN BY JEAN-JACQUES NAUDET Roger Ballen photographed by Marguerite Rossouw Roger Ballen is one of the most astonishing and creative contemporary photographers. A sublime retrospective book has just been published by Thames and Hudson. A photography center bearing his name has just opened in Johannesburg. And a mini-exhibition dedicated to him runs from November 5 to 15 at: 7 Ron

Q&A with a Legend: Roger Ballen A chaotic, beautiful, and disturbing blend of portraiture, installation, and drawing. by Christopher Armstrong • Roger Ballen, 2018 - photographer Marguerite Rossouw Industry Icons Some photographs provide answers; Roger Ballen 's work has only ever offered me profound, unsettling questions. I can’t recall the exact image I saw first, but I’ll never forget the feeling: the sense of peering into a place both intensely real and fantastically ima

Review by Gerhard Clausing • October 2025 First Love, 2018 As always, one has to take a very deep dive into people’s psyche, including one’s own, to understand the art of Roger Ballen. His latest publication, Spirits and Spaces , continues his exploration of the human psyche and the ambiguous terrain in which dreams, nightmares, and realities intersect. Ballen has always been a master at presenting universes that are simultaneously intimate and unsettling, and this volume co

Book Review: Roger Ballen: Spirits and Spaces October 12th, 2025 by Michael Ernest Sweet Curious Cat, 2023 (c) Roger Ballen Many photographers work by responding to the world around them. They walk, they look, they frame. They hunt for images already present in the environment — waiting to be noticed, captured, claimed. Roger Ballen does something fundamentally different. He constructs the very worlds he photographs. The spirits, the spaces, the uncanny tableaux — these are n

ANTINOMIES - Writing and Images - by Mauro Zanchi 20/06/2025 School Room, 2003 Among the artists in dialogue in the exhibition Mario...

The Eiger African Photobook of the Year Award : Interview with Roger Ballen – THE EYE OF PHOTOGRAPHY Baffled, 2020 Founded in 2012 in...

SPAZIO EVENTI LA TOLETTA 20/09/2024 – 20/11/2024 The Theatre of Apparitions , la più nota opera sperimentale del fotografo di culto ...

Roger Ballen / Lightless Compelling Exploration Lightless Compelling Exploration Spotlight by Maria Abramenko on “Ballen by Ballen”...

Roger Ballen as a visionary artist Roger Ballen is a visionary artist, who with his research reveals a surreal and often disturbing...

Disturbing projections. Roger Ballen and Joel-Peter Witkin by Mauro Zanchi 20/03/2024 The closeness between the works of Joel-Peter...

MUSEE MAGAZINE – Vanguard of Photography Culture Roger Ballen & Joel-Peter Witkin: The Uncanny Lens / La Lente Inquietante | Castel Ivano...