Roger Ballen, Fragments, 2005

South African artist Roger Ballen is known for his cryptic photographs, some of which even he doesn’t completely understand. His new collection of images, Documentary Fiction, is no different. Currently on show at the Photographer.ru Gallery in Moscow, Ballen’s exhibition focuses on the eerie ambiguity of asylums and places of discontent. With disturbing reinterpretations of still life, Ballen adds to the riddle of his photographs animate and inanimate objects. Animals, appendages, food scraps, graffiti and anything else of interest are scattered throughout the frame, often haphazardly. The works in Documentary Fiction are comprised of thousands and thousands of parts according to Ballen, but it’s up to the viewer how they should be pieced together… if they can be at all.

The new Aperture Issue 201 features an article on the same Ballen photography project, with accompanying text by Walter Guadagnini.

Roger Ballen: Documentary Fiction
On view: Thursday September 16 – Sunday November 28th, 2010

Photographer.ru Gallery
4-th Syromyatnicheskiy pereulok, 1. str. 6, Moscow
+7 (495) 228-11-70