Dante’s Inferno, written at the dawn of the fourteenth century, has nourished the imagination of artists and poets for seven hundred years, having been illustrated by various illustrious artists such as: Botticelli, Blake, Flaxman, Doré, Dalì, Guttuso and Rauschenberg. However, never before had a photographer offered his visual interpretations for visualizing Dante’s verses.
Roger Ballen embarked on this adventure at the apex of his artistic journey – a journey that took him from the documentary style photos of the early 80s all the way to his creation of the Theatre of Apparitions, located in a psychological theatre that is made up from visions of animals, humans and spirits.
This book consists of sixty-eight photographs by Roger Ballen for the thirty-four songs of Dante Alighieri, in the English translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867). Published by Postcart with a preface by Didi Bozzini, Ballen’s iteration of Dante’s Inferno will be released in November 2025.
Inferno
Dante Alighieri , Roger Ballen
Postcart
Edited by Didi Bozzini
Artistic direction: Marguerite Roussow
21.5×28 cm, 332 pages.
ISBN: 9788831363716
www.postcart.com
