With his harrowing book House of Bondage, photographer Ernest Cole revealed the harsh realities of apartheid from the inside in the late 1960s, showing the world what life was like for Black South Africans like himself. The world was shocked. By the 1980s, however, Cole had faded into obscurity, partly because his negatives were thought to be lost. In 2017, a significant portion was rediscovered.
Through the lens of Cole, who died in poverty, director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) revisits his life and work. The voice-over draws on Cole's own writings, but the true centerpiece is his phenomenal photography.
In the United States, Cole continued photographing Black communities, both in urban and rural settings. Painfully, his work was often dismissed by publishers who failed to grasp its urgency. His growing recognition of parallels between racism in America and in South Africa was not a welcome message.
In retrospect, Cole’s observations have become deeply significant. The euphoria he initially felt about the freedom he expected to find in America gradually gave way to disillusionment and homesickness. At the Cannes Film Festival, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found was awarded the L’Oeil d’or for Best Documentary.