At the intersection of photography, drawing and the subconscious, Roger Ballen constructs visual worlds that are as unsettling as they are compelling. This November, Fotografiska Berlin presents roger ballen.! drawing meets photography, an extensive exhibition exploring the evolution of one of contemporary photography’s most distinctive artistic languages.
There is something inherently uncanny about Ballen’s imagery. Fragmented human figures, animals, doll parts, obscure objects and spontaneous drawings inhabit claustrophobic interiors, forming compositions that oscillate between reality and hallucination. Neither entirely documentary nor wholly staged, his photographs resist conventional interpretation, inviting viewers into a psychological landscape where the familiar becomes strange and the boundaries between conscious and unconscious begin to dissolve.
Between Documentary and Fiction
Born in New York in 1950, Ballen has lived and worked in South Africa since 1982. Initially approaching photography through documentary observation, he began photographing the people, towns and rural communities he encountered throughout the country. Over time, his attention shifted towards domestic interiors, where walls, electrical wires, objects and improvised markings gradually became central elements of his compositions. What began as an observation of the outside world evolved into an increasingly introspective artistic practice.
Since the late 1990s, drawing has played a transformative role in this development. Lines, faces, animals and ambiguous figures increasingly occupy the photographic surface, merging with the physical environment and its inhabitants. Bringing together more than 120 works from 1998 to 2025, the exhibition follows this evolution through key series including Outland, Shadow Chamber, Boarding House, Asylum of the Birds and Roger’s Rats. It also features Spirits and Spaces, Ballen’s first series to make extensive use of colour.
The Uncanny as an Artistic Language
Often associated with Art Brut, Ballen’s visual language deliberately moves beyond established artistic conventions. His approach combines photography with drawing, painting and found objects, creating an aesthetic that is simultaneously raw, theatrical and psychologically charged. The artist coined the term “documentary fiction” to describe the tension between observation and invention running throughout his work. This unmistakable visual universe has become known as the Ballenesque.
Rather than simply documenting his surroundings, Ballen transforms them into stages for an ambiguous visual theatre. Human figures share the frame with animals, masks, doll parts and fragments of the body. Objects become protagonists, walls become canvases and drawings appear to emerge organically from the spaces they inhabit. The resulting compositions occupy an uncertain territory between the tangible and imaginary, inviting associations without prescribing interpretations.
Beyond the Photographic Frame
The exhibition further explores the relationship between image-making and material experimentation through The Theatre of Apparitions. Developed in collaboration with Marguerite Rossouw, the series emerged from experiments with paints, epoxies and emulsions applied to glass. Inspired by figures Ballen discovered scratched into painted-over windows in an abandoned women’s prison, the ghostlike compositions were temporary by nature, preserved only through photography. With the sculpture Drawing Man, this graphic universe moves beyond the photographic frame and into three-dimensional space.
Fotografiska Berlin extends Ballen’s artistic universe throughout the exhibition space. A screening room, found objects and sculptural interventions create additional layers of encounter, while a site-specific installation connects the gallery with the loft. The result is less a conventional retrospective than an immersive exploration of an artistic practice that has spent decades questioning what an image can contain.
Across five decades, Ballen has developed a visual language that confronts the less accessible dimensions of human existence. His photographs do not necessarily offer answers, nor do they make particularly comfortable viewing. Instead, they expose the strange, irrational and often contradictory elements that exist beneath the surface of everyday life. As Ballen himself observes: “The best images are those for which we cannot find words.”
About the Exhibition
roger ballen.! drawing meets photography opens on 6 November 2026 at Fotografiska Berlin, with the exhibition running until 14 March 2027.
The exhibition was created in collaboration with museum gugging and curated by Nina Ansperger, Artistic Director of museum gugging. Marie-Luise Mayer, Exhibitions Manager at Fotografiska Berlin, co-curated the presentation in collaboration with the artist.
Roger Ballen’s work is represented in major international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Beyond photography, his interdisciplinary practice also encompasses film, including the 2012 music video I Fink You Freeky for South African group Die Antwoord.
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