Roger Ballen Sees in Color for the First Time - OFFICE MAGAZINE, May 15, 2026
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.
Ballen was inspired to shift his medium when he received a Leica SL camera as a gift in 2016, reconsidering the value of RBG in his sombre portfolio. In this theater, the spirits of animals and memories and people collide in a tormented yet nostalgic space.
With this series, the interpretation of Ballenesque is reborn. Still, his still-life imagery leans on composition, texture, shadows, forms, and timing. The ethos is left unrendered, and the implementation of color only adds to its emotional depth. Colors carry moods, invoke sentiments, trigger memories. While the muted palette could easily be imagined in black and white, doing so would contradict the necessary aesthetic and the function it plays in the setting. Color adds another dimension for the viewer to analyse.
Ballen's mission to explore the inner psyche - both the human condition and the recesses of his own mind - that remains so foreign ironically is absent of people, instead relying on dolls, dummy parts, and drawings. The series was produced in a claustrophobic space with meagre lighting and worn wooden wallpaper to create an oppressive scene where humanity is reduced to obscure figures and fragmented body parts, resembling an abstract recollection of memory. The bizarre world captured in color is inexplicable, like a strange dream you can't describe yet leaves you feeling impacted for the rest of the day. Spirits and spaces spurs reflection on the connection between absurdity, chaos, childhood, libido, comedy, tragedy, and animalistic nature - the core elements of the human lifespan and subconscious tied to it.
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What a fascinating exploration of Ballen's newfound perception of color! His transition is beautifully symbolic, reminiscent of a ragdoll hit moment—full of unpredictability yet rich with potential. How do you think this change might influence his future projects?