Ernest Cole's apartheid photographs discovered

In 1966, Ernest Cole fled his native South Africa, never to return. The first African freelance photographer, he carried with him a secret cache of images documenting apartheid - photos he knew could never be published in his home country.

Instead, he went to New York City, where Magnum Photos and Random House published “House of Bondage,” exposing South Africa's horrific apartheid system to the world. The groundbreaking book became international news, helping to fuel the anti-apartheid movement.
In 1968, Cole wrote in Ebony that he wanted his photography book to “show the world what the white South African had done to the black.” “I knew that if an informant found out what I was doing, I would be reported and end up in prison,” he continued. “I knew that I could be killed just for gathering that material for such a book and I knew that when I finished, I would have to leave my country to publish the book. And I knew that once the book was published, I could never go home.”

But Cole's fame was short-lived. He gave up photography in the 1970s and died destitute, aged just 49, in 1990. His original negatives are believed to have been lost. Until a few years ago, it was like that. In 2018, Cole's heirs found 60,000 negatives in a bank vault in Stockholm. Now, the first exhibition featuring works from Cole's rediscovered archive is on display at FOAM, the Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam.

“Ernest Cole: House of Bondage” showcases Cole's pioneering work and the obstacles he overcame to capture groundbreaking images of oppression. When Cole finally published House of Bondage in 1967, the images shocked the world – as the artist knew they would. Ahead of the FOAM exhibition, Aperture re-released the book, presenting this first-person account of everyday violence under apartheid to 21st-century audiences.