PUBLIC MARKS from sbrothier with tags photography & music

Obviously we're big fans of photographer Roger Ballen’s dark and disturbing black and white photographs here at Phaidon. So we were pleased to get a call from him this morning telling us about this music video he's just directed for Cape Town hip hop trio, Die Antwoord. The band's music is characterised by its Zef references (Zef being South African slang for modern and trashy, with lots of knowingly discarded cultural references). Ballen of course is famous for his psychologically charged and unsettling images from South Africa of individuals marginalised from society often depicted in the setting of strange, cell-like rooms. So how did the coupling come about?

Le magazine VICE est publié depuis octobre 1994. Originalement appelé Voice et imprimé en format fanzine, son ton intransigeant a immédiatement séduit les Montréalais anglophones dès sa première publication (oui, VICE est Montréalais d’origine). Aujourd'hui le magazine est distribué dans plus de vingt pays et son imprimé a atteint une circulation mondiale d’un million de copies. La version française de Vice magazine, lancée en Mars 2007, est tirée chaque mois à 80 000 exemplaires, distribués via un réseau national de 500 points (boutiques, galeries d'art, magasins de disques, bars, clubs...).