Roger Ballen's drawing-meets-photography show opens in Berlin

Fotografiska Berlin opens roger ballen.! drawing meets photography on Saturday 7 November 2026. The exhibition traces how Roger Ballen moved away from straight black-and-white photography towards mixed media and Art Brut. According to the MUSA Guide listing, it runs until 14 March 2027.

What is on the walls

The show is not a retrospective of prints alone. Alongside photographs, the museum is showing Polaroids, etchings and drawings, as well as a new installation called Drawing Man. Together they make the case that the hand-drawn line has become as much a part of Ballen's practice as the camera.

The works used to announce the exhibition come from two recent bodies of work. Chomp (2010), a black-and-white image of a wolf-like creature with a human head in its mouth, belongs to the series The Theater of Apparitions. Nudge (2020) and Snatched (2021) come from Spirits and Spaces, where drawn figures, collage and photography share the same picture.

Lecture and artist tour

Ballen will be in Berlin for the opening. On Fotografiska's website an artist tour with him is listed for 6 November at 17:30, followed at 18:30 by an opening lecture, The Evolution of the 'Ballenesque'. The lecture looks at the ideas, symbols and subconscious impulses behind what has come to be called the Ballenesque, his very particular visual world.

Why it matters to collectors

For anyone who collects Ballen, the interest lies in the bridge the exhibition builds. His photobooks, among them Dorps: Small Towns of South Africa and Shadow Chamber, are where many collectors first met his work. Seeing those photographs alongside his etchings, Polaroids and drawings shows how the scribbled walls and odd props in his pictures developed into a practice in which drawing stands on its own.

The exhibition also places Ballen among other strong photography shows at the museum this winter. Lauren Greenfield's Social Studies runs until 12 January 2027 and Thomas Billhardt's Die Augen weit offen until 7 February 2027.

Practical details

• Where: Fotografiska Berlin, Oranienburger Straße 54, 10117 Berlin-Mitte
• When: 7 November 2026 to 14 March 2027
• Opening hours: the museum lists daily opening from 10:00 to 23:00

Sources

• Fotografiska Berlin
• Exhibitions in Berlin — November 2026 & Beyond, MUSA Guide