Roger Ballen photographe de l'humain étrange :interview

Roger Ballen, Prowling, 2001. Photographie. Tirage argentique N&B. 35 x 35 cm (65 x 65 cm).



1° Which formation had?

Roger Ballen : "I did not take courses in photography; in fact I learned the how to take photographs by practice and error. Nevertheless, my mother worked in Magnum during the 1960’s and in the early seventies started one of the first photographic galleries in the USA. The relationship I had towards my mother’s work I believe was crucial towards my development as a photographer."


2° You work in black and white. Why this choice?

R.B :"I have never felt comfortable with color photography; it has somehow felt ur artificial to me. I am the last generation that will have grown up almost exclusively in a ‘black and white’ environment and I feel rooted to this particular media. One cannot separate the meaning of my images from the fact that they are in black and white."


3°Your subjects are often poignant, the tortured faces and bodies. How wanted to photograph these people?

R.B : "I never comment on the meaning of my subjects or my images. I believe many that many of my subjects express a particular metaphor about the human condition and if people react and remember my photographs it is usually because it expresses something about them."


4° You live in South Africa. Wanted to testify to the company in which you live ( during and Apatheid)?

R;B : "My photography has primarily been a vehicle for me to express my existential relationship to the world. My work during the apartheid time was not primarily political in nature; although my work during the 1980’s and early 1990’s was seen as that."


5° There is no voyeurism in your photographs. How do you have is made to approach, to integrate into these places?

R.B : "I have known many of the people in my images for decades and never have had a desire to be voyeuristic."


6° Which councils would give the young photographers?

R.B : "Work hard, be disciplined, and find subjects that you are passionately interested in."


7°What think of the place of African photography? And of photography in current art?

R.B : "African photography is a very large field; and like in the rest of the art world there are usually only a few individuals who on all levels are extending our notions of reality. I do not believe that we should make differentiations between African photography and other kinds of photography; good art ultimately reflects the universal."


8°Which are yoprojects to come? Which glance relate to your work?

R.B : "I am working on a new books of photographs which I hope to publish late in 2008 or early 2009. You can view some of these images on my website www.rogerballen.com"