BALLEN, Roger - Outland - DAMAGED REVIEW COPY (2001)

Background information

"The out-of-print photo volume 'Outland' by Roger BALLEN is the culmination of almost twenty years of work and is one of the most extraordinary photographic documents of the late 20th century. His work continued to evolve until the late 1990s and into the year 2000. He continued to portray white people on the margins of South African society
However, where previously his images, however disturbing, were firmly anchored in the category of documentary photography, his new work moves into the realm of fiction. His figures play dark and unpleasant tableaux, delivering images that are both exciting and disturbing in equal measure. One is forced to wonder whether they are exploited victims behaving directly in their own mockery, or newly empowered and active participants within the drama of their representation.

Content

Beginning by documenting the small 'dorps' or villages of rural South Africa, Roger BALLEN turns his attention to their inhabitants in the late 1980s and early 1990s: isolated rural whites scarred by history and stripped of the privileges of apartheid in the process. The results are shocking, both powerful social statements and disturbing psychological studies." (freely translated publisher's text, © Phaidon, 2001)

Additional information

The photo book 'Outland', which is out of print both as a first edition (2001) and as a new edition (2015), was awarded 'Best Photographic book of the Year' at PhotoEspaña 2001 (Madrid). It was included in the photo book compendium 'The Photobook. A History' by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger.

About US-American photo artist, Roger BALLEN (b.1950)

Photo books by and with works by Roger BALLEN