Roger Ballen: Spirits and Spaces

Showcasing Roger Ballen’s photographic work in color, these stunning images remain grounded in the chaotic, absurd psychological space of the Ballenesque.

Having previously expressed no interest in color photography, Roger Ballen was inspired to engage with the medium after receiving a Leica SL camera as a gift in 2016. Opening to the potential of color in his work, Ballen used light in creative ways, exploring new avenues of experimentation. Spirits and Spaces eloquently captures the absurd and bizarre world of Roger Ballen, where animals and art brut–like drawings dominate, and humanity is reduced to obscure figures or fragmented body parts.

The color images in Spirits and Spaces, created in conjunction with Ballen’s artistic director, Marguerite Rossouw, were produced in a claustrophobic space, constructed of worn, wallpapered wooden panels and with minimalistic lighting. Here, in this dense, oppressive environment, Ballen creates what might be seen by many as a world that is unexplainable in words: one in which absurdity, chaos, comedy, and tragedy apparently exist side by side.

Both a visual revelation and an artistic evolution by one of contemporary photography’s most unique voices, Spirits and Spaces will be an essential and much-anticipated photobook for all Roger Ballen fans.

91 color illustrations

Roger Ballen is one of the most important and distinctive art photographers working today. His previous books include Asylum of the Birds, The Theatre of Apparitions, and Ballenesque: Roger Ballen: A Retrospective.

Colin Rhodes is a writer, artist, and educator. He has written and lectured widely on modern and contemporary art, and is a specialist on expressionism, primitivism, and outsider art. He is the author of Primitivism and Modern Art, Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives, and The World According to Roger Ballen, all published by Thames & Hudson. He has worked in universities in the UK and Australia and is currently distinguished professor, Xiaoxiang Scholar, and Yangtze River Scholar in the Fine Arts Academy, Hunan Normal University, China.