David Travis

Following on from the critical success of Outland and Shadow Chamber, Roger Ballen's previous books published by Phaidon, Boarding House features a new collection of work from this significant photographer. Boarding House shows an imaginary space of transient residence, of coming and goings, of people sheltering in a strange place they are using for their immediate survival, furnished with objects that are necessarily for an elementary existence as well as mysterious items whose significance is impossible to discern. Remnants function as physical symbols of events that have occurred in this space; broken pieces of a functional reality exist as the leftovers of scenarios that were played out here. In his introductory essay to the book, veteran photography curator David Travis addresses this new body of work. Having evolved from and developed out of Roger Ballen's previous work, Boarding House differs in that the photographs have become even more formally sophisticated, and the sense of collaboration between the artist and his subjects increasingly evident.