Roger Ballen: Boarding House (2008)

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Roger Ballen: Boarding House (2008)

A unique opportunity to own a limited edition silver gelatin print by Roger Ballen.

Roger Ballen

Editions:

Price: USD$2,250.00

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PRINT

Silver gelatin print

Sheet size: 420 x 406 mm (16 1/2 x 16 inches)

Image size: 362 x 365 mm (14 1/4 x 14 3/8 inches)

Box: 455 x 440 mm (18 x 17 3/8 inches)

Printed in 2008 in an edition of 50 plus 5 artist's proofs

All copies are signed and numbered by Roger Ballen

ISBN-13: 9780714857770

ABOUT THE PRINT

Roger Ballen's (b.1950) work focuses on a strange and alluring place that he calls the Boarding House, where he directs his subjects in a unique collaboration of imagination and reality. Toying with fantasy, Ballen's transient compositions create a question mark over our preconceptions of photography, creating a theatre out of the building blocks of documentary.

The motifs of childhood take on new identities in the nightmarish world of the Boarding House - a toy giraffe lies beheaded, while a clear-eyed puppy chews at the foot of a doll face down in the dirt. Amidst this squalor and chaos Ballen's creation is meticulously framed so that the young child on its periphery becomes almost secondary.

SPECIAL EDITION BOOK

Hardback

300 x 280 mm (11 7/8 x 11 inches)

128 pp

65 black and white illustrations

ABOUT THE BOOK

Boarding House shows an imaginary space of transient residence, of coming and goings, of people sheltering in a strange place they are using for their immediate survival, furnished with objects that are necessarily for an elementary existence as well as mysterious items whose significance is impossible to discern. Remnants function as physical symbols of events that have occurred in this space; broken pieces of a functional reality exist as the leftovers of scenarios that were played out here.

In his introductory essay to the book, veteran photography curator David Travis addresses this new body of work. Having evolved from and developed out of Roger Ballen's previous work, Boarding House differs in that the photographs have become even more formally sophisticated, and the sense of collaboration between the artist and his subjects increasingly evident.

About the author(s)

Roger Ballen (b. 1950) has lived and worked in Johannesburg, South Africa for almost 30 years. Born in New York, he worked as a geologist and mining consultant before starting his photographic career by documenting the small villages of rural South Africa and their isolated inhabitants. His images are both powerful social statements and disturbing psychological studies. Ballen’s book Outland, also published by Phaidon, was named Best Photographic book of the Year at PhotoEspaña 2001, Madrid, Spain.

Phaidon Club

Roger Ballen: Boarding House (2008)