THE JOURNAL
Untitled 52 from the series Amani, 2015. © Ms Evgenia Arbugaeva, courtesy of The Photographers' Gallery and the artist
The American photographer chooses his favourite picture from Photo London.
MR PORTER has teamed up with Photo London to ask some experts from the world of photography – as well as some enthusiasts from our own team – to select their favourite image from the fair. Read about the shot chosen by photographer Mr Roger Ballen, below.
Mr Ballen, the Johannesburg-based American photographer whose photobook Outland is considered a classic of the genre, selects an image by Ms Evgenia Arbugaeva, a photographer known for her exploration of the Russian Arctic, where she grew up. The image, of a “rat trapped in a glass cage”, is part of the 2015 series Amani, which explores the once lauded, now semi-abandoned Amani Malaria Research Station in Tanzania, east Africa, through the experience of its devoted former lab assistant, Mr John Mganga.
Photograph by Ms Marguerite Rossouw, courtesy Roger Ballen Studio
“This image affected me,” says Mr Ballen. “I related to it, consciously or subconsciously. I was struck by the mouse in the glass cage. It’s an animal in a Ballen-esque space, complex, surrealistic and psychological. A place of organised chaos.”
Photo London is at Somerset House from 17 to 20 May
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