The retrospective exhibition “Shadows of the Mind” brings to Romania for the first time the works of internationally renowned photographer Roger Ballen. Presented at Scanteia+ in Bucharest, the exhibition opens on Thursday, March 26, at 6:00 PM, in the presence of the artist and the curator.
The project is a traveling exhibition that has been presented, in various formats, in more than twelve major cultural institutions worldwide, including Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (2005), Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (2006), Triennale Milano (2009), Bozar in Brussels (2010), Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (2017), and most recently, in 2025, at the Benaki Museum in Athens. The exhibition at Scânteia+ is curated by Hercules Papaioannou and organized in collaboration with Studio Roger Ballen.
Open to the public until May 7, 2026, the exhibition invites visitors to move through several stages of Ballen’s career. The retrospective brings together eight photographic series produced at different moments in his artistic trajectory, tracing the evolution from the documentary style of his early works to the psychological theatre that came to define his practice in the early 2000s, and ultimately reaching a new phase of the Ballenesque aesthetic—marked by the use of color—through works from the series “Spirits and Spaces.”
The curatorial text by Hercules Papaioannou highlights this transformation in Ballen’s artistic language:
“[…] Opera lui Ballen a evoluat de la un stil documentar către o estetică simbolică mai abstractă. El vede geologia ca pe o metaforă fundamentală pentru practica sa artistică: coborârea în adâncurile necunoscute ale pământului, în straturi mai vechi decât civilizația, este paralelă cu o călătorie în psihicul uman. Lucrările sale deschid cutia Pandorei a minții umane, eliberând emoții brute, neprocesate. Artistul se abandonează arhetipalului, ascunsului, acelui spațiu în care raționalul își pierde dominația. […]”
Roger Ballen – Between Documentary and the Theatre of the Psyche
Born in 1950 in New York, Roger Ballen grew up in close proximity to the world of photography. His mother worked for Magnum Photos, which allowed him to encounter the work of major photographers at an early age. Among his early influences were André Kertész—a family friend—as well as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paul Strand, Diane Arbus, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, and Brassaï.
In the late 1960s he studied psychology at University of California, Berkeley, during a period marked by the countercultural movements of the American West Coast. His interests were shaped by the Theatre of the Absurd, cinema, literature, and the ideas of psychiatrist R. D. Laing. During the 1970s he traveled extensively beyond the boundaries of Western civilization, and toward the end of the decade he began a PhD in geology in the state of Colorado. After completing it in 1981, he purchased a Rolleiflex camera, which he continued to use until 2015.
From 1982, Ballen settled in Johannesburg, where he worked as a geologist and where he continues to live today. Over the course of his career, more than twenty books dedicated to his work have been published, and the artist has directed over ten videos and short films. Among the best known is the video “I Fink U Freeky” created for the band Die Antwoord in 2012, which has accumulated more than 200 million views on YouTube.
His work has received numerous distinctions, including Photographer of the Year at Rencontres d’Arles (2002), Artist of the Year awarded by Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin (2014), and Best Photo Book at PHotoESPAÑA (2001). In 2018 he received an Honorary Doctorate in Art and Design from Kingston University.
Ballen’s works are included in more than 60 museum collections around the world, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Getty Museum, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Britain, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The artist is also the founder and executive director of the Inside Out Centre for the Arts and the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography in Johannesburg, institutions dedicated to promoting awareness of international and African-related issues through art and educational programs.
In September 2025, the publisher Thames & Hudson released the book “Spirits and Spaces,” the first publication presenting Ballen’s work in color, marking a new stage in the evolution of his photographic aesthetic.
