Roger Ballen

Quick Facts

Full Name	Roger Ballen
Occupation	Photographer
Date Of Birth	Apr 11, 1950(1950-04-11)
Age	74
Birthplace	New York City
Country	United States
Birth City	New York
Horoscope	Aries

Roger Ballen Biography

Roger Ballen is one of the most popular and richest Photographer who was born on April 11, 1950 in New York City, New York, United States.

He later studied psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, which was an epicenter for the 1960s counter-culture. Here, he was exposed to R. D. Laing’s anti-psychiatry movement, Jung’s concept of the “collective unconscious”, the Theatre of the Absurd (Pinter, Beckett and Ionesco) and existential philosophers, such as Sartre and Heidegger, all of which came to be formative in the development of his artistic style. During the summer of 1969, he photographed Woodstock, a series which was published in the New York Times 50th anniversary of the iconic music festival. Ballen notes that capturing Woodstock “played a role in [his] getting to know the human experience, human endeavour, finding the moment, working with people, searching in difficult circumstances for something that stood out. If I had to say what are important aspects that run through the work, it’s trying to come to terms with pure chaos.” Ballen made his first film Ill Wind after completing a course in film making in 1972.

Ballen was born in New York City to Irving Ballen and Adrienne Ballen (née Miller), and was raised as Jewish. His father was an attorney and the founding partner of McLaughlin, Stern. His mother was a member of the famous photo agency Magnum from 1963 to 1967 prior to opening the Photography House Gallery with Inge Bondi in New York City in 1968. Ballen became acquainted with the photographs of Andre Kertesz, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Elliot Erwitt, Bruce Davidson and Henri Cartier-Bresson either from published photographs in albums or through personal acquaintance. He attended Scarborough School, New York, and went to Camp Stinson during his childhood summers. At age 13, he received his first camera, and was soon after employed for a first commercial job of photographing McDonald’s, Mamaroneck, New York. Ballen was interested in the realism of Rembrandt from a young age, and was drawn to photographing elderly men. He recalls that one of the most “vivid and pivotal moment[s] in his life occurred in 1968 when [his] parents gave him a Nikon FTn camera for [his] high school graduation. On the very same day [he] went to the outskirts of Sing Sing Prison near New York city to take photographs”.

Roger Ballen Net Worth

Roger Ballen is one of the richest Photographer from United States. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Roger Ballen 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

Roger Ballen (born 1950) is an American artist living in Johannesburg, South Africa, and working in its surrounds since the 1970s. His oeuvre, which spans five decades, began with the documentary photography field but evolved into the creation of distinctive fictionalized realms that also integrate the mediums of film, installation, theatre, sculpture, painting and drawing. Marginalized people, animals, found objects, wires and childlike drawings inhabit the unlocatable worlds presented in Ballen’s artworks. Ballen describes his works as existential psychodramas that touch the subconscious mind and evoke the underbelly of the human condition. They aim to break through the repressed thoughts and feelings by engaging him in themes of chaos and order, madness or unruly states of being, the human relationship to the animal world, life and death, universal archetypes of the psyche and experiences of otherness.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

Roger Ballen height Not available right now. Russ weight Not Known & body measurements will update soon.

Who is Roger Ballen Dating?

According to our records, Roger Ballen married to Lynda Ballen. As of December 1, 2023, Roger Ballen’s is not dating anyone.

Relationships Record : We have no records of past relationships for Roger Ballen. You may help us to build the dating records for Roger Ballen!

The poor white came to the fore in Platteland: Images from Rural South Africa (1994). Here, Ballen presented tragic portraits of these people, who were facing political and economic anguish at the demise of an Apartheid system specifically designed to elevate them and guarantee government employment. As psychological studies of “character archetypes”, the photographs were described by the photographic critic, Susan Sontag “the most impressive sequence of portraits [she’d] seen in years”. The book also marked the beginning of Ballen’s use of the middle format camera and flash, as well as the deliberate choice of a square negative and black-and-white film.The SouthBank Show aired an episode on the book in 1995 entitled, “Platteland”.

Facts & Trivia

Russ Ranked on the list of most popular Photographer. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in United States. Roger Ballen celebrates birthday on April 11 of every year.

Ballen’s early street photography and the psychological portraiture of Boyhood, Dorps and Platteland was influenced by the work of Cartier Bresson, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus and Elliot Erwitt. The distinctive “Ballenesque” style of his documentary fiction (from 2000 onward), has been said to reference the artistic genres of absurdist theatre, outsider art, art brut, naivism, photographic surrealism and the photographic grotesque. He has also said to have been influenced by a wide range of other literary artistic/philosophical work, such as that of Beckett, Kafka, Jung and Artaud.

What is Roger Ballen known for?

Roger Ballen has been represented by Hamiltons Gallery for eight years. Ballen’s work blends performance, immersion and documentary styles of photography, disturbing the viewer’s sense of reality. Ballen lives and works in South Africa and is in museum collections across the globe.

Who are the Roger Ballen twins?

The twins, only identified as Casie and Driesie , were put in a home for mentally challenged individuals in a small center in North West South Africa.

Was MrBallen a Navy SEAL?

John Allen, better known online as MrBallen, is an American former Navy Seal whose content is focused on talking of true crime cases and other mysteries. A running theme of MrBallen’s videos is he speaks of these cases in a story format and has a special hatred for the Like button.

Is John Allen a real Navy SEAL?

His dad was a journalist, but Allen wasn’t initially drawn to storytelling himself. After graduating from high school, he “didn’t really have a direction,” and decided to join the military. He went to bootcamp in December 2010 and trained to become a Navy SEAL.

Is MrBallen a real Navy SEAL?

Conclusion. MrBallen is a YouTuber who is a retired Navy SEAL. John Allen became a Navy SEAL after college, and he found himself injured while serving, and became medically discharged from the Navy. Allen is married, and the couple has children.