Photographer Ernest Cole was one of the most important documentarists of the Apartheid in South Africa. He photographed everyday life of Apartheid, often covertly and under considerable danger: benches, water dispensers, stairs, restaurants, and bars, all labeled with “whites only” or “Black and coloured.” The photographs show the arbitrariness of the police, of passses and IDs that could be confiscated at any moment. Maybe the most striking images are the hostile looks that Cole captures when white South Africans discover his camera.

In 1967 he was able to emigrate to New York, where his influential book “House of Bondage” was published by Random House. Coles photos were printed in countless international magazines and contributed to the strengthening of the Anti Apartheid movement. His work in the US, where he documented the miserable living conditions of Black Americans in the South and encountered the same hostile looks from white people, didn’t attract interest in US publishing. Cole withdrew, fell into deep depression and eventually became homeless.

A large portion of his work was considered to be lost. Then, in 2018, a safety deposit box opened decades ago by unknown individuals was discovered in Sweden, containing 60,000 carefully archived negatives and numerous recordings. Cole's images are an important and angry counterpoint to the more relaxed street photography of Robert Frank, Gary Winogrand, and Vivian Maier.

Another enigma in Raoul Peck’s film ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND: narrator LaKeith Stanfield is clearly reading from Ernest Cole’s notes. Then, the narrator describes the death and burial of Ernest Cole in the first person, and thus introduces another factor of disturbance.

Tom Dorow (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy