Geologist-turned-photographer Roger Ballen takes haunting images of poor South Africans in surreal situations of their own making.
Ballen collaborates with his subjects to construct psychological settings — filled with wall drawings, odd objects, pets, and body parts — that he then documents in black-and-white. These nightmarish visions, which Ballen makes into prints and books, grant the viewer insight into the troubled minds of criminals, transients, witch doctors, and impoverished laborers who toil in gold mines.
