Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

In the late 1960s, photographer Ernest Cole’s disturbing photobook House of Bondage gave an insider’s perspective on apartheid and its impact on Black South Africans like himself. It shocked the world. In the 1980s Cole fell into oblivion, however, partly because his photographic negatives appeared to have been lost. But in 2017 many of them were rediscovered.

Director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) looks back on Cole’s work and life through the photographer’s lens. The voice-over is based on texts written by Cole, who died in poverty, but the starring role is reserved for his phenomenal photography.

While living in exile in the United States he continued to photograph Black communities in urban and rural areas. Potential clients sadly didn’t recognize the urgency of his work; his observations of increasing similarities between racism in the US and South Africa was clearly an unwelcome message.

Cole’s observations have only gained in value with time. Euphoria about the freedom he anticipated in the US gave way to disappointment and homesickness. Ernest Cole, Lost and Found won the L’Oeil d’or for best documentary at Cannes.