Arts & Culture

Apartheid and Beyond: Rare, Vintage Prints from Cole’s Collection

Rare and vintage prints from Ernest Cole’s House of Bondage series and work made in exile from the U.S. arrive at Magnum Gallery for Part II of a three-country exhibition.

Self portrait of photographer Ernest Cole. 1967. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos

Magnum Gallery opened its doors in Paris last week for its latest exhibition, House of Bondage: Vintage Prints from the Ernest Cole Family Trust-Part II, featuring rare and vintage prints by the South African photographer Ernest Cole. Running from January 22 through March 29, this exhibition forms the second part of a three-part series in collaboration with Goodman Gallery and the Ernest Cole Family Trust. Part II follows the exhibition’s debut in London in November and precedes the final leg in Cape Town this February. Each part of the exhibition is distinct, spotlighting different prints from Cole’s archive.

The exhibition focuses primarily on House of Bondage, Cole’s landmark 1967 book — a harrowing but unflinching documentation of Apartheid-era South Africa. Prohibited in South Africa at the time of publication, House of Bondage persists as one of the most visceral visual testimonies against the horrors of racial segregation, oppression, and settler colonialism.

South Africa. 1960s. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos

Powerful in content and rare in form, most of the vintage prints were made in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and bear a blue Magnum stamp with Cole’s copyright. The high quality of these prints suggests they were part of Cole’s personal collection — preserved for exhibition purposes, but almost never shown to the public.

It’s so rare to see prints that are so old, with this kind of luminosity,says Magnum Gallery Director Samantha McCoy. “Many of these were likely printed by Ernest himself and have remained in remarkable condition,” adds Mark Sanders, Special Advisor to the Ernest Cole Family Trust.

The exhibition mirrors the structure of House of Bondage, which is divided into thematic chapters, each exploring a different facet of Black life under Apartheid in South Africa. In the book, Cole’s writing is as compelling, revealing and condemnatory as his photography. Both pay special attention to the language of Apartheid.

South Africa. 1960s. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos

In keeping with Cole’s tradition of image and word, the sections of the exhibition at Magnum Gallery are now accompanied by texts from art critics, editors, and fellow South African Magnum photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa, forming an inter-generational dialogue around House of Bondage and its timeless impact — the perspective of the present in the past, and the past in the present.

One section, “For Whites Only,” presents stark images of segregation — signs dictating separate bus stops, entrances, and facilities for Europeans and non-Europeans. Condescending and dehumanizing language was pervasive in parlance and signage. The blunt, institutionalized racism showed how Black South Africans were systemically relegated to the margins of society. The chapter “Police and Passes,” highlights the impact of pass laws and use of checkpoints. Black South Africans were required to carry passbooks at all times, allowing authorities to restrict their movement. Without a pass, they could be arrested on the spot.

During group medical examination, the nude men are herded through a string of doctors’ offices. South Africa. 1960s. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos

"The Mines is a reminder of the destruction of Black lives and family structures. When looking at Cole’s photographs, I cannot help but reflect and relate — as they remind me of things that haven’t changed enough in democratic South Africa."

- Lindokuhle Sobekwa

The exhibition then shifts to “The Mines,” which captures the brutal conditions of Black miners and the exploitative labor system that underpinned South Africa’s economy. Many men were forced to leave their families and live in overcrowded, prison-like dormitories, enduring months of isolation. One of Cole’s most well-known photographs, featured in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, shows a group of Black men standing in line, stripped nude, as they undergo a medical check before being sent to work in the mines. The scene channels memories of slavery as well as the ongoing commodification and oppression of human bodies around the world. Hank Willis Thomas’s sculpture Raise Up, installed in 2018 at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, is inspired by Cole’s photograph of the 13 miners.

“My grandfather came to Johannesburg in the 1960s, around the same time Cole was making these works and he worked in the gold mines. He never returned home. He was one of thousands of black laborers who disappeared into the gold rush.” writes Lindokuhle Sobekwa. “One either got unlucky, injured, killed or died of illness. Or became a fugitive trying to escape the terrible working and living conditions. ‘The Mines’ is a reminder of the destruction of Black lives and family structures. When looking at Cole’s photographs, I cannot help but reflect and relate — as they remind me of things that haven’t changed enough in democratic South Africa.”

South Africa. 1960s. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos
According to Struan Robertson, the miners had to be checked off against their individual numbers on their bracelets when they went on shift. The same was true when they came off shift. This ensured (...)

Many of the images in the book and exhibition seem as if they would’ve been impossible to capture, and indeed, Cole was risking his life. “He had a paper bag with a hole and his camera in it,” Sanders said about one of Cole’s covert photography techniques. “Ernest, as a character, was not a big man and was quite quiet in temperament, so he would just kind of blend in. People wouldn’t pay him any attention. Meanwhile, he was busy taking all the photographs that he needed. He had a super sharp mind, and the sign of a great reportage photographer is someone who sees the action taking place in front of them and then very subtly is able to get the shot without anyone noticing.” Additionally, Cole had himself reclassified from “Black” to “Colored,” which allowed for slightly less scrutiny of his movements and activities.

1960s. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos

The section, “The Cheap Servant,” on the flipside of men’s work in the mines, shows some of the roles designated for Black women. One image that Sanders calls “unusual” for Cole, portrays a Black woman wrapped in a blanket leaning against a granite wall. The contrast between the woman’s fragile humanity and the hard, unyielding surface seems to be an apt metaphor for Apartheid itself. On one side, the granite of what may be a bank or office represents the unrelenting power of the white, capitalist, Apartheid regime — its institutions, its wealth, and its cold indifference to human suffering. On the other side, a woman stands cloaked in quiet resilience.

Theophilus Tschangela lies alone in his sickness and reads his prayer book. His mattress is a jute bag filled with grass. South Africa. 1960s. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos

Another chapter, “Banishment,” explores the forced removal of Black leaders from their communities. These activists were exiled to remote areas and stripped of their influence and support. Cole spent some time living among them, documenting their resilience in isolation. Despite their exile, many of these men remained engaged in intellectual discourse. One print depicts Leonford Ganyile, with a book in hand, reading by paraffin lamp. His engagement with the written word is a testament to the endurance of those who refused to be broken by the harsh conditions of Apartheid.

Leonford Ganyile was hopeful for the future and studied for his matriculation by the light of a paraffin lamp. He later escaped across Botswana border. South Africa. 1960s. © Ernest Cole / Magnum P (...)

The exhibition also includes a newly unearthed selection of Cole’s photographs from his time in New York. After leaving South Africa in 1966, Cole found himself in the middle of the U.S. civil rights movement, capturing scenes from Harlem to Midtown Manhattan. These images, long thought lost, were discovered in 2017 in a Swedish bank vault containing 60,000 negatives.

This body of work, now exhibited publicly for the first time, offers a fascinating contrast to his South African photographs. In New York, Cole documented the Black Panther movement, the explosion of the sex industry in Times Square, interracial couples, and the burgeoning LGBTQ+ community.

By the mid-1970s, Cole’s life took a tragic downturn. Struggling with poverty and disillusionment, he became homeless, at one point sleeping in Grand Central Station. He died in 1990, just as Apartheid began to collapse.

New York City, USA. 1972. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos
Central Park. New York City, USA. 1971. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos

However, Cole’s legacy lives on. In addition to this exhibition, last year Aperture published The True America, a book that presents Cole’s long-lost U.S. photographs in New York and the American South — work as vital today as it was over half a century ago. House of Bondage was reissued in 2022 by Aperture, and director Raoul Peck’s 2024 Ernest Cole: Lost & Found won the top documentary prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and will be screened in theatres in the United Kingdom in March.

Ernest Cole promoting his book 'House of Bondage.' New York, USA. 1970s. © Ernest Cole / Magnum Photos

As visitors walk through the gallery, they move from the brutal realities of Apartheid to the electric social and cultural changes of 1960s New York. His lens took in the unseen, the forgotten, and the oppressed, giving their stories a chance to resonate long after he was gone.

Magnum Gallery’s exhibition provides a welcome and necessary reflection on racial injustice, state power, and resistance. For those in Paris, House of Bondage: Vintage Prints from the Ernest Cole Family Trust-Part II is a preservation of crucial history as well as a challenge for us to evaluate the present moment.

Visit Magnum Gallery at 68 Rue Léon Frot, 75011 Paris, France, or learn more on the Magnum Gallery page.

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