Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal: Roger Ballen Photography
EXHIBITION GALLERY
26 November 2008 — 29 March 2009, free admission
Disquieting and confronting, the works of South African artist Roger Ballen are some of the most challenging in contemporary photography. Brutal, Tender, Human, Animal: Roger Ballen Photography provides a powerful and thought-provoking vision of the human condition, exploring poverty, the psychology of human beings and the theatrical possibilities of photography.
This exhibition, curated by the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Robert Cook, broadly surveys Ballen’s photography over the past 25 years.
It is the first major Australian exhibition of this important photographer’s work and was first shown at the Art Gallery of Western Australia as part of the FotoFreo Festival in early 2008. The National Library of Australia is the only other Australian venue for this compelling exhibition.
Born in New York in 1950, Roger Ballen studied psychology and later geology, the field he made his profession. He has lived in Johannesburg for the past 30 years, where he worked in the mining industry – a career that took him into the poor rural areas known as ‘dorps’ that became his initial artistic focus.
Images courtesy of the Stills Gallery, Sydney.
