Ernest Cole - House of Bondage

Ernest Cole

As one of the first black freelance photographers, Cole's work offered a rare inside view. He was born in a township and experienced the oppression of the apartheid regime first-hand. By being classified from 'black' to 'coloured', he gained access to places where most South Africans were banned. He risked his life photographing the grim reality of racial segregation, including in mines, during police checks and the destruction of townships.

Cole led a nomadic existence. He was banned from his native country because of his publication House of Bondage (1967). The chapters of this book form the guiding principle of this exhibition. The book openly opposed the apartheid regime and was immediately banned in South Africa. The real danger of being arrested led Cole to exile in 1966. He would never return.

Living and working in Sweden and the United States, Cole continued to portray the lives of Black people. But existence as a stateless man of colour proved complicated; a publication of his work in the United States would never materialize. Towards the end of his life, Cole became increasingly disillusioned and reportedly lived on the streets of New York. He died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 49. Much of Cole's work was long considered lost.

Until the rediscovery of 60,000 negatives and contact prints in the vault of a Swedish bank in 2017, in addition to never-before-seen work (in colour) from his time in America, the archive contains unpublished photographs and contact prints from House of Bondage. The exhibition at Foam is the first large-scale survey of Cole's work to include parts of his rediscovered archive.