Born in New York City in 1950, world renowned photographer Roger Ballen has lived and worked in Johannesburg, South Africa for almost 40 years. Ballen’s distinctive style of photography has evolved considerably over the decades, now ascribing more to a style he describes as “documentary fiction”. His Outland and Shadow Chamber series caught the attention of Ninja and Yo-Landi, known in the music world as Die Antwoord, leading to a collaboration that would define the duo’s visual identity. The act’s music video for “I Fink U Freeky” quickly garnered over one hundred million hits on youtube.

THE SKATEROOM presents a selection of Roger Ballen’s iconic works, revealing just a fragment of the artist’s art and psyche. Embark on a journey behind the mask and into the rich and weird “Ballenesque” universe.

One of the contributed works of this collaboration features a picture taken by Ballen during the opening of Skateistan’s skate school in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ballen wanted to reinterpret Paul McCarthy’s visual by photographing a young skateboarder with a mask on, holding a McCarthy ‘Piggy’ edition from our PROPO collaboration.

Through our collaboration with Roger Ballen, we donate 20% of the sales profits to support Skateistan’s educational programs in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ballen also contributed to the Skate & Create program by giving photography classes to the students.