The Galerie Magnum Photos presents the second part of an exhibition on the work of Ernest Cole, divided into three parts exhibited in turn in the United Kingdom, Europe and South Africa. In collaboration with the Goodman Gallery and the Ernest Cole Family Trust, this exhibition presents rare vintage prints that demonstrate the incredible richness of Cole’s work during his short career.
This exhibition offers different perspectives on South Africa and more broadly the African continent thanks to the contribution of artists, writers, and curators who have studied Cole’s methodology and seek to offer a new reading of his work. The first part of the exhibition was presented at the Goodman Gallery, London, last November. The third and final part will open next February in their space in Cape Town. Although these three exhibitions all include vintage prints from House of Bondage, each exhibition is nevertheless unique. Presented for the first time in these three cities, this body of work entitled “Black Ingenuity” testifies to the creative expression and cultural activity of the black community during apartheid. With images of artists going to exhibition openings, mixed political rallies, or dance troupes, this body of work offers a new look at the sinister, but also constantly changing, world of apartheid.
Ernest Cole (born Transvaal, South Africa, 1940; died New York, USA, 1990) is renowned for his book of photographs House of Bondage, published in 1967, which chronicles the horrors of apartheid. After fleeing South Africa in 1966, he was banished from his home country and settled in New York. He partnered with Magnum Photos and received funding from the Ford Foundation to carry out a project on black communities and their cultures in the United States. Cole also spent a lot of time in Sweden and became involved with the Tiofoto collective. He died at the age of forty-nine from cancer. In 2017, nearly 60,000 of his negatives – lost for more than forty years – resurfaced in Sweden. In 2022, House of Bondage was re-released by Aperture.
Ernest Cole
Until March 29, 2025
Galerie Magnum Photos
68 rue Léon Frot
75011 Paris
www.magnumphotos.com
