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2010 · archival pigment print
Image: 75 x 70.4 cm (29 1/2 x 27 11/16 in.); Paper: 91.8 x 91.4 cm (36 1/8 x 36 in.)
Cleveland Museum of Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Roger Ballen
American-South African, 1950
New York, USA
PhotographyPhotographyContemporary
Representation
None documented
0
Institutional Exhibitions
10
Works in Collection
14
Assets Indexed
6
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
70%
Profile Completeness
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Movements
- • Photography
- • Contemporary
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About
Why this artist matters now
Roger Ballen is a South African photographer known for black-and-white images of rural and urban communities characterized by stark formal composition and unflinching psychological intensity. Working primarily in South Africa since the 1980s, his photographs document marginal figures and deteriorating domestic spaces with a documentary rigor that resists sentimentality. His images combine portraiture, still life, and architectural detail into densely layered compositions that reveal both material hardship and human resilience. Ballen's work has established him as a major voice in contemporary documentary photography.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 25d ago
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Photography
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Artworks (10)
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Institutional
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In collection
Cleveland Museum of Art
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
In collection
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