Support for Photography

The Roger Ballen Foundation has made a major contribution to establish a photography centre at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town. The museum, which is currently under construction, is intended to open in September 2017.

The donation consists not only of the largest financial gift the museum has ever received from a foundation, but also includes signed prints of every photograph Roger Ballen created in the years from 1968 to 1982. In addition, Ballen will provide the museum with signed prints of all of his future works. “It has been my great desire to contribute to the understanding of photography in South Africa, the country I call home,” Roger Ballen explains.

Ballen’s work counts among the most outstanding and radical approaches in contemporary photography. The extreme psychological realism of his black and white images has elicited controversial responses. To Ballen, his photographs do not represent social-documentary reportages, but instead consist of staged miniature dramas which show social outcasts within the desolate environment of their existence. Along with horror, fear and loathing, there is also compassion, humour and irony inherent in many of his works.

For further information visit www.zeitzmocaa.museum