"The House of Bondage is the dwelling-place of the black people of South Africa, whose bitter life is one of the tragedies of our century. Ernest Cole has lived the tragedy as an inmate of the House for most of his twenty-seven years. A remarkably gifted photographer and an eloquent spokesman, he...exiled himself to expose the harsh realities of his homeland. From his unique vantage point, Cole sees every aspect of South Africa's degradation with a searching eye and a passionate heart."

First published in 1967, Ernest Cole's House of Bondage has been lauded as one of the most significant photobooks of the twentieth century, revealing the horrors of apartheid to the world for the first time and influencing generations of photographers around the globe. Reissued for contemporary audiences, this edition adds a chapter of unpublished work found in a recently resurfaced cache of negatives and recontextualizes this pivotal book for our time. Cole, a Black South African man, photographed the underbelly of apartheid in the 1950s and '60s, often at great personal risk. He methodically captured the myriad forms of violence embedded in everyday life for the Black majority under the apartheid system-picturing its miners, its police, its hospitals, its schools. In 1966, Cole fled South Africa and smuggled out his negatives; House of Bondage was published the following year with his writings and first-person account.

Ref. Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, Volume II. (London and New York: Phaidon, 2006

One the first, if not the first book about apartheid by a black photographer. In order to publish this book Cole left South Africa for New York in 1966. House of Bondage was forbidden in South Africa under the apartheid regime. In 2022 an extended reprint of this historical book was published.