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one of my most famous pictures called
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cat catcher his job is to catch cats so
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he walks around neighborhoods and if he
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sees a cat he grabs the cat and he puts
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it into a bag well my name is Roger
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Ballen I live in Johannesburg South
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Africa I was born in New York City I'm
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69 years old and I have a PhD in geology
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also a PhD in Art and Design I'm also a
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artists photographer I like being
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involved with nature I like dealing with
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the history of the earth I like looking
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I like trying to understand what's
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happened to the planet over billions of
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years and there's nothing more real a
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life came from the rocks life came from
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the earth well I've always been
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passionate about photography I've been
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doing photography since I've been 15 16
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years old my mother was very friendly
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with people like cartier-bresson and
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Malibu but I never wanted to be a
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commercial photographer and so I had to
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choose another career I always work in
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photography is a passion rather than as
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a career I recommend to many people who
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study photography and want to become
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artists and they asked me what my
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recommendation is and I always say get
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another career the world according to
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Roger Ballen was primarily set up as a
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photographic world and that's become
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more than a certain the exhibition and
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we have a whole floor of installations
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the second thing it's a transformation
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of the world to Roger balanced mind and
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thirdly and which is most important the
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work has an ability to enter other
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people's mind brings out things that are
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very pulls out things that been long
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forgotten about the work Oakland becomes
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a world according to the various people
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for many years Hulse mpa was my favorite
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Museum in Paris I love with the museum
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stands for so for me I don't think
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there'd be a better place for me to show
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my work in Paris and maybe even in
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Europe it's really just so ideal I don't
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really have a particular set of artists
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I like I started liking art with the
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cave drawings in thirty thousand years
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ago you know and I like African art I
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like New Guinea our American Indian art
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I like art of the art brut artists
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people who do art not for a market and
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not don't see themselves as artists but
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just do art art is a very encompassing
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word but you can look at a Cloudland see
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art you can look at a tree INSEAD you
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can look at a rat and see on the picture
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there was used for the invitation here
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as part of a series called the theatre
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of apparitions I worked in a warehouse
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in South Africa and they had glass
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windows and I made drawings on these
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glass windows using different materials
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where the paint epoxies glues whatever
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it was and it evolved over the years and
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years and years and I was able to make
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these images that feel ghost-like show
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off there are a few things interesting
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about this picture one if you look at
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it looks like the wire above him look at
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the way the legs are shaped v-shape is
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also repeated in the wires
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what is photography do best it freezes
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time at a moment like this can't be
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repeated his name is ah t there's seen
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him walk around the neighborhood
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sometimes ten cats in the back and then
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he finds a ride into Janus Berg where
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they are which doctors work and live and
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what do they do with the cats they take
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the cats and kill them and then they use
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the paws the ears the fur the tail the
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teeth they used them for medicines this
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is how he earns his living he was one of
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the first people I photograph on I
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started working in Johannesburg between
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82 and 95 all my work in South Africa
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was in the countryside and beginning in
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95 I started working in Johannesburg
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even though I've been living in Janis
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bury all the pictures you see in this
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exhibition are from Johannesburg
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look I've always have thought about this
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and it's one of those questions you just
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don't know it's like if your mother
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hadn't met your father I mean there's so
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many things in life that are just
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circumstantial and then you build on it
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I need to take a certain path and you go
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down that path and as you go down the
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path you're less likely to go down some
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other path very important things happen
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to me in South Africa that have
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contributed to what I do I think I've
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been very lucky and fortunate and I've
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also worked very hard so the answer is I
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it's probably unlikely that would be
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where I am right now if I been like in
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Switzerland or in Norway or and maybe
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even in New York it's one of my dreams
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actually to go through America but the
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thing is is it's like impractical I'll
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be 70 next year America is such a big
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country you know it's not like visiting
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Luxembourg I really would like to do
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something in America at some point in
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time and but it's hard to figure out
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what where when how long you know my
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project usually take five years you know
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they don't take five days or five weeks
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you know it takes a lot of time effort
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and energy and highly unlikely at this
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point in time that I'll be able to do
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you know I guess they say in life maybe
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for the next life oh this is nice of you
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thank you look at that beautiful this is
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quite beautiful what a beautiful bag
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I've really seen such a beautiful bag on
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my whole life let me see what's in here
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I can't wait to see I look at it cool
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people always ask me what is the meaning
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of wires so there's two answers to it
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one in the picture the wire is like a
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line connecting one place one point in
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the picture with another so it's a way
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of linking the visual aspects within the
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image itself so that's the formal answer
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the other answer is what is a wire mean
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they look above you look around you
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there's wires everywhere pick up your
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phone between my phone and your phone
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there's an invisible wire if you could
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see these invisible wires you would
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probably be very very worried you it'd
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be like almost like seeing viruses or
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bacteria and there you start to be go
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crazy a paranoiac that this wires
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everywhere so I think the wire has a
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for meaning to it it's a connector but
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it's also it's a dominating force in our
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life right now and one should just be
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aware of that people are generally tired
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of art that doesn't lead them anywhere
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they are just become another fashion
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another part of the median there's an
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offer them anything other than being an
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object for decorative purposes my goal
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since age 17 18 Roy's to produce good
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pictures but if you're trying to sell
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fashion clothes what I do isn't exactly
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right but if you want pictures that have
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impact pictures that people remember
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then there's very few people who are my
