For five years the focus of Roger Ballen's photographic work has been a strange and alluring place near Johannesburg he calls the Boarding House. It is crowded with poor workers, transients,  criminals, hiding

from the law, witchdoctors, children, pets animals, and insects. There are stains and marks, curious objects and mysterious drawings smells and noises everywhere. These photographs are like images from a waking dream, compelling and thought-provoking, formally sophisticated and filled with layers of

rich detail.  The images in Boarding House blur the lines between documentary photography and art forms such as painting, threatre and sculpture-they make us questions everything we see.

 

 

 

15.05.2011; 12:00