Ernest Cole (1940–1990) was a pioneering South African photographer best known for documenting life under apartheid. Born in Pretoria, he trained as a photographer in Johannesburg and worked for Drum magazine, a key platform for Black photojournalists. His powerful 1967 photo book, House of Bondage, exposed the harsh realities of racial segregation and oppression in South Africa, leading to his banishment from the country. Cole lived in exile in the United States and Europe until his death in New York City in 1990. His work remains a landmark in documentary photography and anti-apartheid activism.
Ernest Cole
South Africa
House of Bondage (1967)
House of Bondage (1967) is a landmark photo book by South African photographer Ernest Cole, one of the most searing visual documents of apartheid ever published.
Banned in South Africa upon release, the book uses stark black-and-white photographs and concise, powerful captions to expose the brutal realities of apartheid — the segregation, exploitation, and daily humiliation endured by Black South Africans.
Cole photographed miners, domestic workers, students, and families, revealing how the apartheid system controlled every aspect of their lives — from where they could live and work to how they were policed. His images were deeply human, intimate, and political at once.
After smuggling his negatives out of South Africa, Cole worked in exile to publish House of Bondage in New York in 1967. The book became a global testimony against racial oppression and remains one of the most important photographic records of the 20th century.