SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, presents "Roger Ballen:Photographs," on view through February 16, 2003. Roger Ballen, a native New Yorker who has livedin South Africa since the 1970s, creates startling, confrontational, and intensely personalphotographs. Blurring the boundaries between documentary photography and constructedinstallations, Ballen’s art confounds expectation and challenges assumptions about the medium, hissubjects, and the role of the photographer. Roger Ballen: Photographs presents a survey of theartist’s photography, from his early architectural images made in the tradition of Walker Evans tohis recent staged tableaus of rural denizens. These portraits of forgotten civil servants, theirchildren, maids, and pets are studies of the degradation and failure of apartheid. Shot with adirect flash his poor white subjects, their personalities and their flaws, are depicted in starkrelief set against the walls of their homes. Devoid of political correctness or sympathy, Ballen’sportraits expose political and social realities often ignored in contemporary South Africa. RogerBallen: Photographs was organized by MCASD and will travel to the Berkeley Museum of Art and othervenues in the United States. This exhibition is made possible thanks to the annual contributionsof stART Up, MCASD’s support group of young professionals. Additional support is provided bygrants from the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the California Arts Council.