羅傑·拜倫新作「幻像劇場」在英展出，這一次更讓人看不懂了

天下 03-23

小編語：

如果從世俗角度來看，羅傑·拜倫這個「紐約生、南非長」的攝影師，無論是在商業性、還是藝術性上都是相當成功的。他的個展在全世界範圍內都有展出，畫冊一本一本出，作品的收藏價格也水漲船高，更不用說他接的許多半商業性的「活兒」，也受各種商業、地產商的推崇。

之前我們也介紹過他在中國中央美術學院的個展：CAFAM展覽 | 羅傑·拜倫：荒誕劇場Roger Ballen: Theater of the Absurd

談到羅傑·拜倫的拍攝手法，這個學礦產出身的攝影師，借著礦業勘探的職務之便，抱著個照相機四處拍攝南非的奇怪人物肖像。一開始拍攝手法也很傳統（畢竟他媽媽就是瑪格南的圖片編輯），但是後來「表演」和「擺拍」的成分越來越多；而且他也開始對視頻製作產生了濃厚的興趣，開始和知名的音樂家、搖滾樂隊合作推出音樂錄影。

但是與之相對應的，很多人也對他的作品提出質疑。尤其是攝影愛好者，總會問一個問題，「這還是攝影嗎？」這個問題很難回答，或者有時也沒必要回答。借著這次新作的面試，羅傑·拜倫接受British Journal of Photography的採訪，其中談到了他創作的靈感來源、從紀實到抽象的風格轉變、一直以來對慾望的控制和妥協、甚至還提到了對潛意識的利用和控制。

羅傑·拜倫的「幻像劇場」於2017年3月17日-4月21日，在倫敦的Hamiltons畫廊展覽。Roger Ballen』s Theatre of Apparitions is on show at Hamiltons Gallery, London, until 21st of April 2017.

羅傑·拜倫新作「幻像劇場」在英展出，這一次更讓人看不懂了

Amulet, 2011, Roger Ballen, courtesy of Hamiltons

羅傑·拜倫（Roger Ballen）最近推出了他的新項目「幻像劇場」（The Theater of Apparitions），把觀眾帶到他的潛意識中遊覽了一番。

有著「心理攝影師」之稱的羅傑·巴倫（Roger Ballen）近期將在倫敦展出最新作品「幻像劇場」，這是這套作品首次面世。自1980年代初以來，這個紐約出生的攝影師已經在南非的攝影領域工作了三十多年。他的作品從直接攝影開始，後來又轉變為代表人與野獸之間關係的更抽象的形式，他相信的古老的薩滿教視覺符號都深深嵌在我們身上。

「幻像劇場」的靈感來源於他在南非一個女子監獄的黑色窗戶上看到的手繪雕刻。「這些圖像佔據了一個感性領域：從零散的世界，到零散的對象。其中的恐懼和混亂淹沒了現實和幻想、自我和他人。」拜倫說，「這些剪影是源於人類集體無意識的閃爍原型。」

Roger Ballen presents his most recent body of work, The Theatre of Apparitions, taking the viewer on a journey into his subconscious.

The photographer of the psyche, Roger Ballen, is in London to show his latest work, The Theatre of Apparitions, the first time he』s exhibited the series. Based in South Africa since the early 1980』s, the New York-born photographer has worked in photography for over thirty years, starting with 『straight』 documentary but latterly moving into more abstract forms representing the relationship between human and beast, and harking back to the ancient shamanistic visions and symbols which he believes are embedded in us all.

The Theatre of Apparitions is inspired by hand-drawn carvings he saw on blacked-out windows in a women』s prison in South Africa. 「The images occupy a perceptual realm – a fragmented world of part – objects where fears of annihilation and chaotic perceptions merge reality and fantasy, self and other,」 says Ballen. 「These silhouettes are flickering archetypes originating from the collective unconscious of human kind.」

對話羅傑·拜倫

問：這組作品和以前做過的完全不一樣，是受到了什麼樣的啟發才開始做這個項目的？

答：2005年初，我在約翰內斯堡的南非女子監獄拍照。我進了一個牢房，我看到有人在窗玻璃上畫了一些圖像——這些圖形非常明亮，我拍了一些照片，最終在2005年出版的畫冊《陰影書房》中收錄了它們。這與我之前拍過的東西都完全不同。我開始在一些有很多窗戶的廢棄建築中工作，同時我開始在窗戶上做畫並拍攝照片。

羅傑·拜倫新作「幻像劇場」在英展出，這一次更讓人看不懂了

《陰影書房》Shadow Chamber

這樣做非常有趣，這種工作方法與我從前的項目非常不同。我很有啟發，渴望繼續下去。這就像開始滾一個雪球——我開始開發新的技術，這種從玻璃上開始、使用油漆繪製符號的方法是神奇的。我最初用祿來6×6膠片相機拍攝，然後當我轉移到另一個有更多方形窗口的空間時，我開始使用Mamiya 5×6拍攝。這個項目於2005年開始，持續到2013年。

問：你是如何從紀實攝影轉而拍攝抽象作品的？

答：我的攝影一直是一個心理和自我的旅程。「羅傑·拜倫」一直在改變。你並不一定要記錄那裡有什麼，我更關心的是心理層面的憂慮...一個人必須接納自我需求。例如，有些人需要在世界不同的地方尋找痛苦；像我這樣的人則對長時間的個人心靈旅程更感興趣。雖然我的作品在二十世紀六、七、八十年代更偏紀實，但我一直以心靈旅程的記錄為目標。

此外，當時我還很年輕，我不會像現在這樣做照片。我沒有現在所擁有的技能、心理能力或技巧。經過多年的積累，我的作品變得更加複雜，但卻更簡潔明了。過去50年，我一直在做攝影，它不斷發展變化。隨著時間的推移，我的風格的得到了發展，你可以在9月份出版的一本名為《Ballenesque》的書中看到這種變化。

問：你給我的印象是，你的工作強烈地聚焦於被社會壓制的感覺和慾望上，我說的對嗎？

答：這不僅僅是關於社會，更重要的是心靈如何壓制自己。具體來說，我在說壓制自己的本能，你自己的壓力，壓制自己的一部分，這與文化，成長，你的個性，你的經歷有關。我們的個性發展了數千年，在此期間，我們不得不壓制我們的本能來適應社會。我想為了生存的利益，我們都要壓制一些東西。但現在人們做得太過分了——他們不再追隨自己，他們不遵循自己的直覺，他們把自己與外界隔絕了。相反，他們跟隨領導和政治運動，他們跟隨消費主義運動。

這不一定是西方世界的產物。如果你看一些非常傳統的社會，你可以發現比西方社會有更多的壓制。這是一個世界性的問題——我一直在說，直到人性被發掘、直到世界上大多數人與自己的更深層次自我相接觸，並重新克服他們所生活的一些鎮壓，這個世界就不會有任何樂觀的改變。人們為自己的問題指責別人，他們對世界生氣，他們對自己也生氣，他們對自己的局限感到憤怒。所以這是一個不斷循環的問題，只要這種情況繼續存在，就沒有希望、和平、寧靜和穩定。

問：你為什麼認為人們不會妥協？

答：人們不能面對自己。生命的核心本能就是死亡。他們不能與死亡妥協，不能接受自身的局限與不安全感。用我的照片，我試圖深入人心的本質。我的照片是滲透進人類潛意識的，試圖展示我和觀者的潛意識，幫助大家與分裂的自我相妥協。

問：你不覺得我們應該控制我們的潛意識嗎？

答：你的潛意識可以控制你。使用這些術語很容易，但潛意識在哪裡？它有很多層次和水平，不是那麼簡單。也許我的潛意識現在在跟你說話。你不能說這一面是有意識的，另一面是無意識的，這一切都來自同一個大腦。有時候，人們說我的照片是黑暗和令人不安的，可能是因為他們自己並沒有達成一致。我的照片正是試圖鑽入人心。

Q: This work is quite different to what you have done before, what inspired it?

A: At the beginning of 2005, I was making a video in a women』s prison in South Africa, in Johannesburg. I went into one of the cells, and I saw that somebody had made some drawings on some window – these drawings were very luminous and I took pictures of them that ended up in my Shadow Chamber book, published in 2005. This was very different from anything I photographed before. Thereafter, I started working in some abandoned buildings that had a lot of windows, so I started making drawings on the windows and taking pictures of them.

It turned out to be very interesting, very different from what I had done [previously]. I was quite inspired, and keen to continue. It was like a snowball – I started to develop new techniques and it was almost magical what came out of this glass, using paint, markers or whatever. I initially shot with a Rolleiflex 6×6 film camera and then, later on, when I moved to another space with more rectangular windows, I started to use a Mamiya 5×6. The project started in 2005 and lasted until 2013.

Q: How did your career evolve from documentary photography to more abstract work?

A: My life in photography has always been a psychological and personal journey. Roger Ballen is changing all the time. It』s not necessarily documenting what is out there, but it』s what concerns me psychologically….One has to adopt what one needs. For instance, some people need to find the worst in different places of the world; people like myself are more interested in photography as a personal psychological journey through time. This has always been the purpose, although my work in the 1960s, 70s and 80s was more documentary.

Furthermore, I was younger and I wouldn』t have been able to do pictures like these. I didn』t have the skills, psychological capability or techniques to do what I do now. Through years my work becomes more complex, concise and clear. I』ve been doing photography for fifty years now and it keeps evolving, the development of my styles through time can be seen in a book coming out in September called Ballenesque.

Q: I have the impression your work is strongly focused on feelings and desires which are repressed by society, is that correct?

A: It』s not so much about society but more about how the mind represses itself. Specifically, I』m talking about repressing your own instincts, your own urges, repressing part of yourself which has something to do with culture, upbringing, your personality, your experiences. Our personalities have evolved over thousands years, during which we had to repress our instincts to fit into society. We all do repress something, I guess for the benefit of survival. But nowadays people are going too far – they don』t follow themselves, they don』t follow their instincts, they cut them off. Instead, they follow leaders and political movements, they follow consumer movements.

This is not necessarily a product of the Western world. If you look at some very traditional societies you can find more repression than there is in the Western societies. This is a worldwide problem – I』ve always said that until humanity, and until the majority of individuals in the world, come into contact with the deeper part of themselves and relink some of the repressions they are living with, there is no chance of any optimism on the planet. People are blaming others for their problems, they are angry at the world, they are angry at themselves, they are angry about their limitations. So it』s a constant circular problem that exists and as long as this continues there is no hope, peace, tranquillity or stabilisation.

Q: Why do you think people don』t come to terms with themselves?

A: They can not deal with themselves. The fundamental instinct of life is death. They cannot come to terms with their own death, with their own limitations, with their own insecurity. With my photographs, I try to delve deeper into the nature of the human mind. My pictures are about penetrating the subconscious mind, revealing aspects of the subconscious mind to myself and to the viewer, hopefully helping other people, as well as myself, to come to terms with the divided self.

Q: Don』t you think that we should control our subconscious?

A: Your subconscious may control you. It』s easy to use these terminologies, but where is the subconscious mind? There are many layers and levels, it』s not so simplistic. Maybe my subconscious mind it』s talking to you now. You cannot say this side is conscious and this is unconscious, it』s all coming from the same brain. Sometimes people say that my pictures are dark and disturbing, probably because they haven』t come to terms with themselves. My pictures are trying to delve into deeper personality.

幻像劇場

The Theatre of Apparitions

羅傑·拜倫新作「幻像劇場」在英展出，這一次更讓人看不懂了