ROGER BALLEN'S ASYLUM [2011] SERIES IN SOME/THINGS CHAPTER004
[...UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENTS / it's not like you're walking in and everybody is shaking hands with you. there are a lot of very difficult people in these places and you have to keep an equilibrium or else you might not end up walking out of the house in one piece. also, working with birds is difficult. they move a lot, they're quite unstable, they're hard to control, they're flying all over the place, you have to catch them, make them stay. and if you've got more than one bird in the picture, two or five birds, you can't tell it to stay and sit there.
one of the problems photographers like me face is that everyone can take a picture with their telephone or whatever but this is a really complicated process to get these photographs. so when you asked me when will i be finished with the book, it requires a lot of my brain, on different levels, to work in some coherent fashion to actually produce these works. some people say 'oh, your pictures are staged'. if my pictures were staged, it would contradict the nature of a good photograph. a good photograph reflects an aspect of time that can't be repeated, so it can't be staged. if it's a bad photograph, it's been staged or it's contrived. that's what makes it difficult because it's such a great feeling when you get it right but you can't plan these pictures. i go in with a totally blank mind, i don't even think about what i'm going to do i just get there and try to build something up and develop it in some way, it's like putting a big jigsaw puzzle together and having to do it really quickly. /]
/ EXCERPT FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH ROGER BALLEN BY RAINA LAMPKINS-FIELDER IN SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE CHAPTER004 / THE WINGS OF A LOCUST
since the first issue, the SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE EDITORIAL TEAM has worked closely with South Africa-based artist ROGER BALLEN, featuring a selection of previously unpublished images for a 20-page article in SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE ISSUE001, a text contributed by BALLEN exclusively for ISSUE003, and an entirely new series [Asylum] in CHAPTER004. Both issues also include extensive interviews.
/ PREVIEWS OF BOTH FEATURES ARE NOW ONLINE
one of the problems photographers like me face is that everyone can take a picture with their telephone or whatever but this is a really complicated process to get these photographs. so when you asked me when will i be finished with the book, it requires a lot of my brain, on different levels, to work in some coherent fashion to actually produce these works. some people say 'oh, your pictures are staged'. if my pictures were staged, it would contradict the nature of a good photograph. a good photograph reflects an aspect of time that can't be repeated, so it can't be staged. if it's a bad photograph, it's been staged or it's contrived. that's what makes it difficult because it's such a great feeling when you get it right but you can't plan these pictures. i go in with a totally blank mind, i don't even think about what i'm going to do i just get there and try to build something up and develop it in some way, it's like putting a big jigsaw puzzle together and having to do it really quickly. /]
/ EXCERPT FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH ROGER BALLEN BY RAINA LAMPKINS-FIELDER IN SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE CHAPTER004 / THE WINGS OF A LOCUST
since the first issue, the SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE EDITORIAL TEAM has worked closely with South Africa-based artist ROGER BALLEN, featuring a selection of previously unpublished images for a 20-page article in SOME/THINGS MAGAZINE ISSUE001, a text contributed by BALLEN exclusively for ISSUE003, and an entirely new series [Asylum] in CHAPTER004. Both issues also include extensive interviews.
/ PREVIEWS OF BOTH FEATURES ARE NOW ONLINE