Roger Ballen: “Shadows of the Mind” at the Benaki Museum

The retrospective exhibition ‘Shadows of the Mind’ by internationally renowned South African based photographer Roger Ballen will open on Wednesday 5 November 2025 at 20:00 at the Benaki Museum / Pireos 138. The exhibition is curated by Hercules Papaioannou and is co-organized by the Benaki Museum, MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography and Studio Roger Ballen, with the support of EMST – National Museum of Contemporary Arts Athens. On the opening day, at 19:00, the photographer will give a short talk (in English) about his work in the Auditorium of the Benaki Museum / Pireos 138. The exhibition will run from Thursday 6 November 2025 until Sunday 25 January 2026 inviting viewers to walk through several stages of Ballen’s renowned career.

Over the past five decades, Roger Ballen’s photography has been ever evolving. Stylistically, he progressed his square formatted photographs from stark black and white to more elaborate color staged scenes. Conceptually, Ballen’s earlier works presented a more documentarian perspective, capturing the life of those around him during his work as a geologist in rural South Africa. However, as his interaction with his subjects developed, his focus has shifted towards the inner world of the human psyche, leading him to a kind of ‘documentary fiction’. Now his work exists in a canon of its own; the Ballenesque – a theatre of the mind made up of animate and inanimate characters, ghosts, animals and absurdity.

Born in New York in 1950, Ballen has been living and working in South Africa for the last 40 years. He is among the 21^st century’s most influential and important fine-art photographers. In his practice Ballen has increasingly interrogated the possibilities of integrating photography, drawing and installation – constantly expanding his repertoire and visual language. This integration is a lasting contribution to the field of art, as well as a powerful commentary about the human condition and its creative potential.

This retrospective exhibition, Roger Ballen: Shadows of the Mind, brings together various independent photographic series; namely Dorps (1986), Platteland (1994), Outland (2001), Shadow Chamber (2004), Boarding House (2009), Asylum of Birds (2013), Theatre of Apparitions (2016) and Spirits and Spaces (2025). To view these works together allows audiences to have a concentrated experience, from the documentation of the earlier works to the creation of the psychological theatre that became the stage for his works during the early 2000s, and the evolution of the Ballenesque style in color, in his latest publication Spirits and Spaces. The exhibition surveys the extent of Ballen’s ability to transform an image beyond the confines of narrative or medium, as well as his interest in forefronting what lies on the fringes of our societies. Ballen, who refers to himself as an “outsider,” describes it like this:

“It has been my goal to break down the boundaries between photography and other arts, taking photography out of its self-isolation as a form.”

Although Ballen is widely noted as a photographer, his practice itself destabilises photography’s singularity due its integration of painting, drawing, installation and video – transforming it into a medium that expands far beyond simply capturing what is in front of the camera. This kind of layered image making provokes the eye and challenges viewers to look inwards at the worlds of their own thoughts and feelings – this is the power of the Ballenesque.

Roger Ballen: Shadows of the Mind demonstrates the breadth of Ballen’s practice while affirming his goal to dissolve boundaries and transform photography into a theatre of the mind.

Roger Ballen has published over 25 books internationally. His works are in more than 50 of the most important international museum collections. Ballen has also been the creator of several acclaimed and exhibited short films that dovetail with his photographic series. He was one of the artists that represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale Arte 2022. He is also the founder and executive director of the Inside Out Centre for the Arts and the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography in Johannesburg. The Centre aims to promote awareness of International and African related issues through art and educational programmes. In September 2025, Thames and Hudson released Spirits and Spaces, the first ever publication of Ballen’s work in colour.

Guided tours will be led by curator Hercules Papaioannou on the following dates and times:

Saturday, 29.11.2025 at 17:00 & Sunday, 30.11.2025 at 12:00

The number of participants is limited. Plus €2 to the admission cost of the exhibition. Tickets may be bought in advance at tickets.benaki.org or at the Museum on the day of the visit.