EVENT: Johannesburg, South Africa—Ernest Cole Exhibition, A right handful - Times LIVE

A right handful

Sep 16, 2010 11:38 PM | By Mandla Langa

RACEY DAYS: This picture is almost certainly from a shebeen in Pretoria's Riverside, and shows why Cole's pictures got under the skin of the apartheid government Pictures: THE ERNEST COLE FAMILY TRUST

Ernest Cole's photo of a sweating black boy crouched over a blackboard is not a prize-winning war photo in the usual sense.

It is a telling symbol of the long struggle of black South Africans against an oppressive regime, and is one of the more memorable images in Cole's book House of Bondage.

Possibly one of the first black social realist photographers, Cole criticised apartheid by juxtaposing, through his penetrating lens, horror and beauty.

The exhibition, Ernest Cole the Photographer, will feature many photographs never previously seen. Taken from a collection owned by the Hasselblad Foundation, it will be the largest ever showing of his work.

Taken under the most trying circumstances, the pictures reveal the strength, subtlety and elegance of Cole's photographic vision.

The works are a tribute to Cole's courage and tenacity on the arduous journey towards democracy.

 

Cole courted arrest many times because of his insistence on photographing police in action, especially during the infamous pass raids.

 

He preferred the un-cropped image, where the frame was part of the picture. To achieve this, he had to shoot fast while maintaining an unobtrusive watchfulness.

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RACEY DAYS: This picture is almost certainly from a shebeen in Pretoria's Riverside, and shows why Cole's pictures got under the skin of the apartheid government Pictures: THE ERNEST COLE FAMILY TRUST
RACEY DAYS: This picture is almost certainly from a shebeen in Pretoria's Riverside, and shows why Cole's pictures got under the skin of the apartheid government Pictures: THE ERNEST COLE FAMILY TRUST

 

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Cole left South Africa in 1966, heading to France, England and ultimately New York, where he passed away in 1990 from cancer. Nelson Mandela had been released the previous week.

 

Cole's book House of Bondage was published in 1967, and was immediately banned. Commenting in the late 1980s, photographer Paul Weinberg said: "If I were [the Nationalist government], I would distribute thousands of copies for whites to show their children if they were concerned with survival."

 

  • Visit the exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery from Sunday to November 21.
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