Antiquarian Auctions

Auction #129 begins on 26 Feb 2026

[Knape (Gunilla) Editor:]

ERNEST COLE PHOTOGRAPHER

With Essays by Struan Robertson and Ivor Powell

Published: Hasselblad Foundation / Steidl, Goteborg, 2010

Edition: First Edition

Reserve: $200

Approximately:

Estimate: $250/300

Bidding opens: 26 Feb 16:30 GMT

Bidding closes: 5 Mar 16:30 GMT

Ships from: South Africa

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First Edition: 263 + a colophon page, illustrated throughout with Cole's black and white photographs, black cloth with silver titling, a fine copy in the dust jacket.

Editor's note: 'Ernest Cole (1940-1990) believed passionately in his mission to tell the world in photographs what it was like and what it meant to be black under apartheid. He identified intimately with his own people in photographs of unsurpassed strength and gravitas, with courage and compassion, he portrayed the full range of experience of black people as they negotiated their lives through the insanity of apartheid and its racist laws and oppression. in order to publish his book, House of Bondage, Cole went into exile. Immediately on its launch in 1967 the book was banned.

'This book contains the photographic prints donated to the Hasselblad Foundation by the Swedish Collective, 'Tio fotografer' (Swedish for Ten Photographers), most of which have never been previously exhibited. The text is by Cole in his own words and the reminiscences and writings of those who knew him.'

See also: South African History On Line: (http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/ernest-cole)

  • Overall Condition: Fine
  • Size: 4to (245 x 265 mm)


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