Evoluzione Analogica by Renato D’Agostin

Animal Absurdity by Roger Ballen

Roger Ballen is considered one of the most important contemporary photographers. Since the 1980s, he has lived and worked in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is famous for his intense black-and-white images that position themselves between documentation, staged composition, and a psychological visual universe. His works have been exhibited internationally and have received numerous awards; they are included in the collections of Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.

The exhibition at LUMEN and the ECK Museum, held within the framework of the ANALOGUE Photo.Festival, presents a thematic survey of his decades-long body of work, in which the presence of animals plays a central role. In series such as Outland or Asylum of the Birds, they do not appear merely as subjects, but become an integral part of visual universes of a psychological and existential nature. Humans and animals share cramped, often dilapidated spaces in which the boundaries between human and animal seem to dissolve. The unsettling compositions evoke atmospheres that recall the subconscious and prompt the viewer to question themes such as isolation, control, and the fragility of human existence. The exhibition offers an in-depth look into Ballen's unmistakable visual language, which constantly challenges the perception of reality and highlights its most disturbing aspects.

Renato D’Agostin is an Italian photographer known for his high-contrast black-and-white photographs and silver gelatin prints. After living in Milan and New York, he worked as an assistant to photographer Ralph Gibson, developing a personal visual language suspended between abstraction, architecture, and urban perception. His works have been exhibited internationally and are part of collections including the International Center of Photography in New York and LACMA in Los Angeles.

With Evoluzione Analogica, D’Agostin transforms the exhibition space into a darkroom accessible to the public, offering an unprecedented look at the creation process of the analogue image. The large-format prints appear raw, unframed, and marked by the traces of darkroom work: they are hung with magnets, like newly developed materials still in progress. Contact sheets, editorial drafts, working materials, and video projections transform the space into an open studio—simultaneously a laboratory and an exhibition environment.