PORTFOLIO – 41.

ERNEST COLE: THE GOOD, BAD AND THE UGLY.

By Nii B. Andrews.

During the apartheid era, there were South African photographers who produced a massive photo archive that today enables “collaborative story telling”.

One of the important photographers was Ernest Cole.

He was born near Pretoria in 1940 and 18 years later, he joined the staff of the seminal publication, Drum Magazine.

He left Drum in 1960, and freelanced for South African newspapers and the Associated Press.

Cole risked his life, limb and liberty on numerous occasions in order to capture and produce chilling, stark and brilliant photographs of life under apartheid.

Group medical exam for mine workers.

In 1966, when he felt that his life was in imminent danger on account of his work, he went into exile in New York City where he continued his work as a photographer.

Soon after his arrival in New York, he produced a book of immense depth and breadth – a powerful photographic archive of his personal testimony on the venal folly of apartheid.

Cole had indeed lived what was captured in the images.

The book was entitled HOUSE OF BONDAGE; “it brought apartheid into the public visual consciousness”; it is “a prowling and growling indictment from beginning to end”; it prised relentlessly at its scab; it confronted its power with unpalatable reality.

Segregation on a train platform; a meme for the brutal inequality of the system.

It was a landmark book; the first book by a black South African photographer that documented the raw reality of life under apartheid; it consisted of almost 200 black and white photographs.

For the next 20 years – starting from 1967, Cole moved between the US and Sweden. Anecdotes are told of him having fallen into “bad company” in New York; he started drinking alcohol heavily whereas in South Africa he never drank.

Sadly, he fell on hard times, became homeless and lost control of his extensive photo archive that dated back to his days in South Africa.

Celebrating the civil rights era in the US.

In 1990, he died destitute in a New York hospital from pancreatic cancer.

There was no trace of his subsequent work in the USA or Europe.

It was readily assumed that the vast majority of Cole’s negatives – even predating his exile, had been lost; perhaps some never even left South Africa with him.

Then, out of the blue, Cole’s nephew Leslie Matlaisane, was contacted in South Africa by a Swedish bank asking him if he will like to retrieve around 60,000 (sixty thousand!) negatives from three safe deposit boxes.

Newly recruited mine workers arriving on left; those leaving on right.

 

There was no information on who had placed the negatives there or paid for their storage, but the bank was now requesting that they be removed.

Matlaisane obliged in 2017, before bringing the work to Magnum in 2018.

The analysis of and research into this gargantuan archive should shed important light on Cole’s biographical details including the vitality and incredible power of his work.

Young boy squatting and sweating in township classroom- (?double/single track)

 

The story of Cole adds further impetus to the need for us – and especially Africans, to value, appreciate and support our artists and conserve their work.

Cole was a soldier in the army of artists whose medium was light – a photographer.

He clung to the abiding essence of human life;  justice, mercy, truth and love.

4 thoughts on “PORTFOLIO – 41.”

  1. Waow. A lot to reflect on. If Cole had stored them himself, he surely must have known their future value, but chose not to trade it for small change.

  2. Very interesting! An important collection of factual history. Anyway Madiba said we should reconcile. It gives me something to think about today. Thanx for sharing.

  3. There is no end to the truth of genius. Mr Cole’s photographs are not simply the documentation of the chilling effects of white racial psychosis on social engineering, but shows his vision from a skillful and technical perspective. These images are exceptional examples of the “art” of photography, and their journey through time is his legacy to us. Thank you so much for bringing this giant to our attention. I will never stop calling his name ..

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