Balarama Heller

An American photographer who lives and works in New York City. His practice reimagines archetypal symbols found in the natural world. He explores primal symbols and patterns, both real and imagined, working towards a visual language of preverbal awareness. These symbols interact in a ceaseless cycle of creation and destruction, referencing the cosmological, mythological and atomic scales.

Heller lived in Istanbul, photographing long-form projects concerning ritual and transcendence in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Heller resettled in New York City in 2010. Recent group shows include ​Maelstrom​, at 303 Gallery, New York, ​You Can’t Win, Jack Black’s America curated by Randy Kennedy at Fortnight Institute, ​What’s Outside the Window at ReadingRoom, Melbourne AU, New Artists at Red Hook Labs and the 2015 Aperture Summer Open. In 2014, he published his first artist book, ​Into and Through​. ​Zero at the Bone received first place at the 2017 Center Awards Editor’s Choice and runner-up for the 2017 Aperture Portfolio Prize. His 2019 project ​Sacred Place” was featured in Aperture Magazine issue 241, with text by Pico Iyer.