Roger Ballen's Theatrical Color Photography at BUILDING Milan

After over 50 years of black-and-white photography, American-born, South African-naturalized artist Roger Ballen (b. 1950, New York) presents a new project at BUILDING TERZO PIANO in Milan, shifting to color while retaining his signature sandy, faded, and dark palette. The exhibition features six collections of photographs that create dreamlike, grotesque, and macabre yet ironic tableaux, reminiscent of Johnny Depp films. Ballen uses no photomontage or post-production manipulation; instead, he constructs scenes with furniture from his collection, live animals (cats, snakes, mice), dolls, and drawn spirits on backgrounds, all captured in-camera. The show includes a section of Polaroids transformed with colored ink interventions. Ballen, who studied psychology and documented Woodstock and Vietnam War protests, began experimenting with color photography in 2016 while based in Johannesburg. The exhibition runs at BUILDING TERZO PIANO, a gallery space in Milan, offering a singular experience that explores the primitive and bestial aspects of the human psyche through visual micro-dramas.