Roger Ballen: Boarding House

Born in New York City in 1950, Roger Ballen has lived and worked in Johannesburg, South Africa for almost 30 years. The son of a picture editor at Magnum, he worked as a geologist and mining consultant before starting his own photographic career by documenting the small villages of rural South Africa and their isolated inhabitants. His images are both powerful social statements and disturbing psychological studies. Ballen's previous book Outland (Phaidon, 2001) is of the most extraordinary photographic documents of the late twentieth century.Author's residence: Johannesburg, South AfricaDavid Travis retired from his post as chair of the department of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago in July 2008, having worked at the institute for 36 years. Since starting out as an assistant curator of photography in 1972, he curated more than 150 photography exhibitions at the institute and also guest curated exhibitions at other American museums, including the National Gallery of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1987, he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the advanced awareness of French culture. A collection of his lectures and essays, At the Edge of Light: Thoughts on Photographers and Photography, on Talent and Genius, was published in 2003.