Ernest Cole's haunting photographs of apartheid shocked the world and yet his own life ended in obscurity. Now, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck has brought Cole's story to the screen in Ernest Cole: Lost and Found. Speaking to RFI, Peck reflects on Cole's groundbreaking work and the exile that tore him apart.
RFI
Issued on: 05/01/2025
Photograph of segregational signs at a South-African train station taken by Ernest Cole in the 1960s. © Wikimedia/CC
By: Isabelle Martinetti with RFI
"I remember the first photos. it was a long time ago in Berlin when I was studying," Haitian film director Raoul Peck told RFI.
"The anti-apartheid struggle was beginning, and Ernest Cole's photos were circulating a lot because it was the first time we discovered the horrors of apartheid at a human level, from the perspective of men and women."
Born in 1940, Cole fled South Africa in 1966 to escape the apartheid regime. He lived in exile in the United States, where he captured striking images of life in New York City and the American south.
His seminal work, House of Bondage – banned in South Africa – exposed the brutal realities of apartheid and earned Cole international acclaim at just 27 years old.
"He was seen, perceived as a black photographer, whereas he wanted to be a photographer like one of his idols, Cartier-Bresson," Peck explains.
Filmmaker Raoul Peck presents his latest film, Ernest Cole, Photographer, about the first South African photographer to expose the horrors of apartheid in South Africa.
Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP - Joel C Ryan
"Ernest Cole's ambition was also to photograph, as he says, 'the human condition'."
Peck's film also tells the story of the wandering of Cole after his exile in 1966.
"He is an angry man, but he is also a man, like many men and women I’ve known in exile, who are disturbed, torn, and broken by being away from their country, who often suffer. So, he is also isolated in this society," Peck says.
Cole’s later years were marked by hardship and obscurity, but his story took a surprising turn in 2017 when 60,000 of his negatives and photographs were discovered in a Stockholm bank.
The collection, which includes thousands of images shot in the US, had long been thought lost. The mystery of who deposited the photos remains unsolved.
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found was released in France on 25 December, 2024.
"Ernest Cole's ambition was also to photograph, as he says, 'the human condition'."
Peck's film also tells the story of the wandering of Cole after his exile in 1966.
"He is an angry man, but he is also a man, like many men and women I’ve known in exile, who are disturbed, torn, and broken by being away from their country, who often suffer. So, he is also isolated in this society," Peck says.
Cole’s later years were marked by hardship and obscurity, but his story took a surprising turn in 2017 when 60,000 of his negatives and photographs were discovered in a Stockholm bank.
The collection, which includes thousands of images shot in the US, had long been thought lost. The mystery of who deposited the photos remains unsolved.
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found was released in France on 25 December, 2024.
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