“我无法解释或描述这个地方，若然它并非像我所想的，以这样或那样方式的存在于大多数人的意识里。”——罗杰拜伦
罗杰拜伦的摄影作品就像一个清醒的梦的截图：引人注目、发人深省、耐人寻味，层次丰富而细腻，闪烁着黑色幽默，渗透着一种变化的存在感。他的作品模糊了纪实摄影与艺术的界限，不仅是一个强有力的社会声明，也是一个复杂的心理研究。
费顿出版社非常高兴地宣布出版南非摄影师罗杰拜伦的最新摄影作品集——《寄宿公寓》。此书展示了70张黑白摄影作品，其中绝大部分是未曾发表的，是罗杰拜伦迄今为止技术最为精炼老到的作品集。“画面更加强调了绘画和雕塑的元素，艺术家与镜头下的一切的协作性越来越凸显。”——摄影策展人大卫特拉维斯撰文，从罗杰拜伦的职业生涯这个更广泛的背景下如此阐述了他的作品。
寄宿公寓是一个给来来去去形形色色的人的临时落脚点，是一个满足栖居的人即时的生存所需的地方，是一个有着最基础的设施的建筑，装饰着令人回味的涂鸦，冷不防还会窜出一些不知名的小动物。那些残留的痕迹作为在这个地方发生过的故事的物质性象征而存在着；那些现实的碎片就像是曾经上演过的剧本的遗留物。在这个临时的栖身之地那种变化的存在感所衍生出来的疏离与孤立，恰恰是无拘无束的想象力的起点。
与备受好评的《化外之地》和《暗室》一样，（费顿出版社分别于2001年， 2005年出版） ，《寄宿公寓》是一个探索发现的旅程，我们在这个历程中，忘却了世俗的自我，从而回到人类最初始的状态，回到心灵最原始的状态。这是一个由罗杰拜伦的潜意识以及观众的身在其中所创造出来的世界，无论这个地方是真实或是虚构，一切都模糊了界限却互不相干。
ROGER BALLEN: BOARDING HOUSE
“It is difficult to explain this place except that I think it exists in some way or another in most people’s mind.” –Roger Ballen
Roger Ballen’s photographs are like images from a waking dream: compelling and thought-provoking, with layers of rich details, flashes of dark humor, and an altered sense of place. Blurring the boundaries between documentary photography and art, his work is both a powerful social statement and a complex psychological study.
Phaidon Press is pleased to announce the publication of BOARDING HOUSE by Roger Ballen, a new collection of photographs by the South African photographer. Showcasing over 70 black and white images, mostly unpublished, this is Ballen’s most formally sophisticated work to date. The tableaux have a greater emphasis on drawn and sculptural elements, and the sense of collaboration between the artist and his subjects is increasingly relevant. An introductory essay by photography curator David Travis addresses the work in an accessible way, looking at these images in the wider context of Ballen's career.
BOARDING HOUSE is a space of transient residence, of comings and goings, of people sheltered in a place they are using for their immediate survival. Basic and fundamental, the structure is furnished with objects necessary for an elementary existence, decorated with evocative drawings, and littered throughout with animals. Remnants function there as physical symbols of events that have occurred in the space; broken pieces of a functional reality exist as the leftovers of scenarios that have been played out there. The altered sense of place of this temporary abode creates a sense of alienation, which acts as a jumping off point for the imagination to run wild.
Similar to his critically acclaimed work Outland and Shadow Chamber (Phaidon Press 2001, 2005), the BOARDING HOUSE is a journey of discovery in which we leave our ordinary selves behind and confront a primitive part of the human condition and its psyche. Whether the place is real or imaginary is both indecipherable and irrelevant. It is a place where Ballen’s subconscious and the viewer’s inhibitions can occupy its own universe.
【编辑：霍春常】
