World-renowned photographer Roger Ballen will visit Latvia in June 2025 for a public lecture at the contemporary photography platform ISSP in Riga, followed by a major retrospective exhibition titled "The Other Mind: Roger Ballen. Retrospective" at the Mark Rothko Art Centre in Daugavpils. The lecture, held on June 6, offers a rare opportunity to hear Ballen discuss his creative process and over fifty years of work, while the exhibition, running from June 5 to August 30, spans his career from early documentary works to his signature "documentary fiction" and recent color photography.
This visit matters because Roger Ballen is considered one of the most influential photographers of the 21st century, known for his psychologically intense, hybrid visual language that blends photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture. His works are held in over 50 major international museum collections, and he represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale in 2022. The event highlights Latvia's growing role in hosting world-class contemporary art figures and provides local audiences with direct access to an artist whose work explores the darker layers of the human psyche.