Roger Ballen study visit review

Sarah Gallear, OCA photography student gives her thoughts on last week’s study visit.
Roger Ballen is a photographer who has generated mixed opinions throughout his career and this retrospective, the first major exhibition of his in the UK at Manchester art gallery is no exception. Shadowlands: Photographs 1983-2001 could not be a more apt title for the mixture of images spanning six different collections, and featuring videos of Ballen at work and his recent foray into the world of music video.
Living in working in South Africa, the exhibition opens with images of homes and streets before Ballen started to build relationships with the residents and the start if of his documentary style work. The most eye catching image in this style was the well known portrait of twins ‘Dresie and Casie’ from the ‘Platteland’ series. Presented larger than the other images, at almost life size it made the twins imposing stare come right out at the viewer and it’s no wonder that this started the first debate between the group, skilfully aided by Gareth and Peter. We wondered if its inclusion so early on in the exhibition was confidence on part of Ballen in something so well known, or whether he just wanted it out of the way to clear the slate for his more unsettling work.
‘Outland’ brought us to an almost voyeuristic point where we were looking through a window into these people’s lives with a mixture of strange relationships, poverty and recurring props and themes coming into use. For example when we viewed ‘Sickroom’ we find a contrast between the old wasted figure on the bed and the well fed young boy stood over him, yet further on in the series we see the old man again playing a different part. How much is reality and how much is what Ballen is wanting to portray? Through watching the video of Ballen at work it became clear that he has built up good relationships with the residents and they are willing actors.
As we moved on through ‘Shadow Chamber’ and ‘Boarding House’ the use of people grew less and the interaction with props increased with recurring themes such as faces, animals, both dead and alive, wires and children’s toys replacing people. Ballen himself says that each picture reveals a piece of who he is – yet it seems more like a descent into warped madness and by the time we get to the latest work ‘Asylum’ 2012, the sheer number of images and their uncomfortably dark subject matter makes it both hard to read, and also to take in what is an overwhelming career retrospective.
The one glimmer of light relief is in the form of the Ballen collaborated music video with South African rap rave group Die Antwoord on ‘I Fink U Freeky’ which encompasses a number of his trademark symbols and pokes fun lightly at some of his earlier characters.
A telling sign of how we all felt after the visit was when Gareth asked what we thought of it and there was a pause of silence as we all tried to reason what we had seen, it’s this open debate and discussion with a study group that’s so beneficial to understanding challenging exhibitions. Love it or hate it, Roger Ballen gets people talking and his work will stay with you long after you’ve left.