New SA Short Film Brings Roger Ballen’s Latest Work to Life

The short film, an excellent piece of homegrown art, challenges us to see the world and our own minds differently.

South Africa (01 June 2026) – Roger Ballen is a name most South African art lovers hold in high regard. For nearly six decades, the Joburg-based photographer has created a dark, fascinating style so distinct it has its own name – ‘Ballenesque.’

The broader public might recognise Ballen’s work through his popular collaboration with Die Antwoord on one of their breakout music videos, which he co-directed – the wildly viral “I Fink U Freeky” video in 2012.

Overall, he is a monumental figure in fine art, with his works housed in prestigious global institutions like the MoMA in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He even represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale in 2022.

Locally, his legacy lives in Jozi with the Inside Out Centre for the Arts and the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography.

Ballen’s ‘strange’ – as it is so often described – black and white photographic works dive into the depths of the subconscious where a mix of chaos, theatrical absurdity, and raw emotion steal the focus.

His latest photobook, Spirits and Spaces (published by Thames & Hudson), features 91 images that continue the deep dive into the human subconscious. This time, and for the very first time in his decades-long career, Ballen expresses his world in colour.

“This is the first photographic book and film in my long career of nearly six decades that I have expressed my world in colour,” says Ballen. “This place should be viewed not as a location that is real versus unreal, but as an uncanny spot that exists somewhere in each of our minds. Upon viewing the film and images you will be unclear as to if whether and when you have ever been to this Ballenesque universe.”

A local creative team has released an experimental short film created as a companion piece to Ballen’s book of the same name. You can watch the short film for free on YouTube (see below).

The film, directed by Gabriella Blumberg alongside director of photography Gavin Pincus and creative director Marguerite Rossouw, is a shifting visual journey.

The story follows a lone spirit who awakens in a coffin and wanders through six different rooms. Each space represents a specific chapter from Ballen’s book: Childhood, Spectre, Animus, Shadow, Libido, and Chaos. As the spirit moves through them, the walls seem to breathe, shadows detach themselves, and the rooms erupt into chaos around him

“Creating Spirits and Spaces felt more like making a documentary than a work of fiction – as though placing a camera within the mind of Roger Ballen,” says Blumberg on creating the film. “The film invites viewers to step beyond the surface of each photograph and inhabit its liminal space.”

Ballen’s imagery has always been like a vivid nightmare that somehow holds a strange, undeniable beauty. While his visuals can initially feel a bit grotesque, there is also a surprising amount of tenderness hidden inside.

Spirits and Spaces is a meditation on fragility, vulnerability, and how human creativity manages to thrive even when things feel totally fractured.

The film and the book were designed to be experienced together, launching simultaneously so audiences can see how the two mediums talk to each other. If you want to dive into the project, watch it on YouTube and find The Spirits and Spaces photobook available to purchase online.

Sources: Versfeld & Associates

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