Ernest Cole (1940–1990, South Africa / New York) was a pioneering South African photographer whose courageous work provided an unflinching portrayal of life under apartheid and the broader struggles of Black existence. Born in South Africa in 1940, Cole trained as a photographer in Johannesburg and went on to become one of the first Black South African freelance photographers. His most influential work, House of Bondage (1967), documented the daily realities of racial segregation, oppression, and poverty, and was banned in South Africa.

Cole fled South Africa in 1966, smuggling his negatives out of the country and eventually settling in New York. Once in exile, he continued to work as a photojournalist and documentarian, expanding his focus beyond South Africa to include the American civil‑rights era. His life in exile was fraught with hardship, and despite the seminal nature of his work, he died in obscurity.

His work has been the subject of major exhibitions such as Ernest Cole: House of Bondage at The Photographers’ Gallery in London (June–Sept 2024) and Ernest Cole: A Lens in Exile at Autograph, London (June–Oct 2024), which showcased his photographs of New York City during the height of the civil rights movement. His archive of some 40,000 negatives, long believed lost, was rediscovered in 2017 and has since been central to renewed interest in his legacy.

Cole’s images are held in numerous major public collections, including Museum of Modern Art (New York). His visual practice—marked by formal rigour, moral engagement and historical witness—continues to inform contemporary understanding of photography’s role in social justice and memory.