http://www.rogerballen.com/
Roger Ballen's work speaks to me because it is off kilter and it makes me uneasy. I am reminded of nightmarish dreams where nothing scary really happens it was just disturbing. After researching into dreams I came across Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which talked about soldiers who returned from war and had recurrent nightmares of battle which could possibly lead to schizophrenic behavior (schizophrenia being talked of as a "waking dream") and noticed that I am showing symptoms of mild post-traumatic stress from the events of the summer which are currently still haunting me in my dreams almost nightly. I have not been to war, literally, but I believe I have been fighting, and currently am still in a psychological war against my enemies. Maybe not so much "post" traumatic, as it is "Traumatic Stress Disorder"
A person dreams during REM sleep and before waking goes into a short rest(no dreaming) where most of the time the sleeper will forget the dreams of their night, but when under stress one will awaken straight from REM with the dream still fresh. I have to tell myself it was just a dream because for a second it was real. That's the feeling Ballen's photographs give me, the uneasy feel. His images hit that dreamy dark note that doesn't make sense, border-line scary.
As I want to capture or portray this romanticized dream, I also want the full spectrum of dreams represented in my works including the prophetic dream, nightmare, symbolic, uneasy dream, and even wet dreams.
Ballen's work also contains hints of the psychological. A weird commentary on strange childplay or perhaps representative of those dark fairytales..
I am also reminded of Richard Billingham with some of his documentary work.
A person dreams during REM sleep and before waking goes into a short rest(no dreaming) where most of the time the sleeper will forget the dreams of their night, but when under stress one will awaken straight from REM with the dream still fresh. I have to tell myself it was just a dream because for a second it was real. That's the feeling Ballen's photographs give me, the uneasy feel. His images hit that dreamy dark note that doesn't make sense, border-line scary.
As I want to capture or portray this romanticized dream, I also want the full spectrum of dreams represented in my works including the prophetic dream, nightmare, symbolic, uneasy dream, and even wet dreams.
Ballen's work also contains hints of the psychological. A weird commentary on strange childplay or perhaps representative of those dark fairytales..
I am also reminded of Richard Billingham with some of his documentary work.
No comments:
Post a Comment