Roger Ballen: “Photography Was a Hobby Until I Was 50 Maybe”
One of the most provocative photo artists of the world Roger Ballen on what he thinks of criticism, why he doesn’t need inspiration and why dogs twitch their paws in their sleep.
After working together on the band’s I Fink U Freeky video, Die Antwoord lead singer Yolandi Visser said Ballen was “the weirdest person” she has ever met in her life. It seems that if Yolandi Visser calls you weird, it means you really are weird. However, in conversation Roger Ballen doesn’t try to appear to be an extraordinary personality – he doesn’t talk about divine insights or contacts with subtle realms – he claims that, in photography, discipline is more important than the Muse. How was his past? It was ok. What does he want? To stroll along the ocean.
In his interview with Bird In Flight, Roger Ballen talks about how he gave up a successful career as a gold miner for professional photography, about the new aesthetics he created and about nightmares.
About himself
My first picture was when I was about five and half years old. I had a Kodak Brownie Camera, and I took a picture of my dog. And my first sold picture was when I was over 30, in 1982 in an exhibition I had in South Africa. It was of some people that I photographed in Morocco. In South Africa there was no history of selling photographs. There was no market. It was not sold for a lot of money.
I am a doctor in geology, I worked in this field for thirty years. My job was to find gold, platinum. I’ve been in Africa a lot doing this. And because of that I was able to do my photography for all these years as the hobby and as an art. I mean if I did not have another profession, I would never be able to do what I have done.
I’ve been doing photography all my life, but I never did professional photography, I did not see it as the profession. And it was a very nice feeling that I sold some pictures, but it was not something that I took seriously. It was a hobby until I was 50 maybe.
I live in Johannesburg, and I usually come into my office at about 7.30 in the morning. And in the morning I work on printing, I work on administration, I answer the emails, I work on projects, on editing the pictures. Then at about 12.30 I go out and go to the particular places to take photographs. After 5 pm I come back here and do more administration. And then I usually go home at about 7 – 7.30 in the evening. I have dinner, relax a little bit, read the paper or watch the television, and go to bed at 10.30.
I like hiking, I like diving. I am 65 now, I am not 25 anymore. But I like being in nature. When somebody offers me a holiday, I would not be going to some big cities, I would be going somewhere to the Indian ocean, diving, swimming, and walking. That is what I really enjoy.
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_01.jpg”, “text”: “From Platteland series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_02.jpg”, “text”: “From Platteland series”}
About criticism
My photographs creates a lot of controversy. At first I was confused and upset that my pictures can cause that controversy. The first thing that created this controversy was my book Platteland. It became known all over the world. It made my career as the international photography artist. There was so much interest in the book, I started to take my photography more seriously.
In the mid-nineties I always joked that my only friend was my dog called Leroy.
I worked four or five days a week on taking photographs for the last twenty years. So it gave me the confidence. To be honest with you, I hardly receive any criticism anymore. Usually the criticism I receive has no basis for criticizing what I do.
I think I’ve created a new reality and new aesthetics in photography that affects people in their psyches. What I do is something that has impact on people. When people see my pictures they won’t forget them. And I think they are formally good and technically good as strong inner metaphors. You know, to be honest with you, there is no reason to criticize what I do. The work is strong, it stays with people. So usually when people criticize, they use very tired and boring arguments that reflect the lack of knowledge of critics.
The reason people have to call my pictures ugly, crazy, or freaky is simple: they don’t have a deal with the pictures in their mind. They cannot come to terms with themselves.
I think people should understand the photo emotionally, they have to figure out why the pictures have an impact on them. I think that is the purpose of the artist – to make an impact on a person, to make them feel something. So if the work has an impact on the person, it has succeeded as an artwork.
Most people in the world – in Russia, in America, they live in a world of repressions. Psychological repressions, forget about political repressions. Good artwork helps people to deal with the repressions.
You cannot find yourself, you know, it`s a process of identifying who you are, where did you come from, where are you going. You try to put the pieces together, and hopefully these pieces will give you some ideas. But you`ll never put the puzzles together. It`s better to put a few pieces together.
I would just say I have quite a deep existential personality. That would be the way to describe my personality. I don’t want to talk about sadness or happiness, these are hopeless words. I spend a lot of energy and time trying to define myself. I do it through photography more than in any other way. And I am lucky that I have an artistic media to do this, because as you work with the media, it helps you to progress your ideas, it takes you further. It does not mean you get there, but it takes you further.
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_05.jpg”, “text”: “From Outland series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_06.jpg”, “text”: “From Outland series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_07.jpg”, “text”: “From Outland series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_08.jpg”, “text”: “From Outland series”}
About creative process
In photography you keep learning. You don’t get it one day, you get it the next. You expect the day to be good. Some days you have a headache or getting a flu, or toothache. You just continue working. You have to take the good and the bad, and to progress. As we say in English, you don’t win the lottery everyday. The keys I tell students are discipline, focus, passion, and long-term exercising.
When students ask me for a word of advice about becoming an artist, I always say that the best advice I can give you is to find another profession that you like.
There are many people in my Outland series, and I have a friendship with most of them. I have been working with them for so many years. And if I did not have a friendship, I could not take these pictures. It`s impossible. I worked in difficult circumstances. In unstable circumstances, where people are homeless, they have no money. And if you don’t get along with the people, and you cannot develop the comradeship with them, then these pictures would never happen.
I don’t really work with inspiration. I just work with discipline and passion. The inspiration only lasts a short time. As I said, it`s hard work that takes your energy and time. The biggest inspiration for me is to be able to take great photographs from nothing. There is nothing more that inspires me but my work. You know, there is no point to be inspired by everybody else.
One of the reasons I am able to create this unique aesthetics, as I lived in South Africa, it’s not mainstream, it is isolated. And I developed this aesthetics on my own. I worked constantly, I used my own work as the model for creating the new work.
There are always some enemies somewhere. Everybody is trying to find somebody else to blame their problems for.
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_03.jpg”, “text”: “I fink u freeky”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_04.jpg”, “text”: “I fink u freeky”}
About the past and the future
How was my childhood? It was ok. I grew up outside of New York City. Before 5 you are like a baby. So this is the age when people explore the world for the first time. You can go out from your mommy and daddy with your friends for the first time. This is the period when children still have an imagination. My first book is called Boyhood, it is the whole book on the things related to my childhood. I made a 5-year trip around the world to do this book. It was in the early seventies, I was in my twenties. Someday I want to reprint the book, it’s a very romantic and beautiful book.
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_09.jpg”, “text”: “Boyhood”}
When I was a child, I was dreaming about traveling the world, going to strange places, faraway places, being in an adventure, exploring, finding treasures. And I can say that I don`t have any regrets. I think I have great fortune that I have got to this point.
Life is not easy. But I am still happy with what I am doing. What else can I ask for? I just want to stay in that way, and stay healthy, and people you have relationships with stay healthy, too. There is nothing more that you can do.
On his contribution to photography
My videos, my installations, my new work is the transformation of the old work. I think I’ve created a unique contribution to photography. And the pictures are not just about South Africa, or traveling here and there. They create an aesthetics, it`s my transforming and seeing the world. So it’s not the art statements about particular cultures, it is not the statements about the history or economics. These are the pictures that try to come to terms with the inner landscapes of the human mind.
I have different dreams, some of them are black and white, and some of them are colored. You cannot remember the colors from your dreams, you can have a thousand of them in one night. But I think most of them are in color.
Everybody has nightmares. In fact, people call night things nightmares, but these can be revelations. Everybody has them, even the dogs do. You have noticed them twitch their paws when they sleep as if they were running away from someone, haven’t you?
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_10.jpg”, “text”: “From Asylum of the Birds series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_11.jpg”, “text”: “From Asylum of the Birds series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_bird.jpg”, “text”: “From Asylum of the Birds series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_13.jpg”, “text”: “From Asylum of the Birds series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_14.jpg”, “text”: “From Asylum of the Birds series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_15.jpg”, “text”: “From Shadow Chamber series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_16.jpg”, “text”: “From Shadow Chamber series”}
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ballen_17.jpg”, “text”: “From Shadow Chamber series”}
