Lost Ernest Cole Photographs of Black America Published for First Time

Aperture has published 'Ernest Cole: The True America', the first collection of the South African photographer's images of Black life in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s. After fleeing apartheid and publishing his landmark book 'House of Bondage' in 1967, Cole resettled in New York, where he photographed extensively on the streets and traveled across the country documenting Black communities before and after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The images capture both a newfound freedom and systemic racism. Cole released few of these photos during his lifetime; the negatives were thought lost until they resurfaced in Sweden in 2017. The 312-page hardback includes 275 images and features texts by Raoul Peck, James Sanders, and Leslie M. Wilson. Cole, born in Transvaal in 1940 and died in New York in 1990, was associated with Magnum Photos and received Ford Foundation funding for his U.S. project. The rediscovered trove of over 6,000 negatives establishes Cole's place in American photography.