“Three hundred years of white supremacy in South Africa have placed us in bondage, stripped us of dignity, robbed us of self-esteem, and surrounded us with hate,” wrote Ernest Cole in the introduction to his photobook House of Bondage. First published in 1967, it exposed viewers around the world to the many forms of violence embedded in everyday life under apartheid—a government-sanctioned system of spatial segregation on the grounds of race. Working methodically and at times in secret, Cole traversed the country to expose apartheid’s forms of economic oppression and how its laws had displaced landowners, separated families, and eroded the educational system for Black students.

Gallery label from

2023

Medium Gelatin silver print
Dimensions 9 7/16 × 11 15/16" (24 × 30.3 cm)
Credit The Family of Man Fund
Object number 89.1999
Department Photography

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Ernest Cole

Ernest Cole

South African, 1940–1990 41 works online

For the first 26 years of my life I was one of the 13.5 million Black people who live (or should I say ‘exist’?

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