A first edition of Cole's photo book that was BANNED in South Africa
Publisher's beige coarse cloth binding with gilt titles on front panel and spine. Pictorial dust jacket.
192pp. Black & white photographs in profusion.
Text with Thomas Flaherty. Introduction by Joseph Lelyveld.
Binding solid. Contents clean. Dust jacket very good and now housed in a removable plastic protector.
'This is one of those rare books that can change the way we think by revealing a truth of which we are unaware. 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 has recently exiled himself to expose the harsh realities of his homeland today.
From his unique vantage point, Cole sees every aspect of South Africa's degradation with a searching eye and a passionate heart.' - editor's note on front flap
'Ernest Cole, son of a tailor and a washerwoman, was born near Pretoria in 1940. He took his first pictures at 15 with a borrowed camera, left school two years later to earn money for a correspondence course in photography. By a bold and clever maneuver he got himself classified as a colored, rather than black, an important distinction in South Africa. By persistence and luck he managed to get staff jobs and free-lance assignments from newspapers and magazines.
By 1960, when the idea of House of Bondage took root, he had the experience, mature talent, and freedom of movement to achieve it. He left South Africa in 1966, bringing out thousands of pictures to document his unique and terrible view of South Africa's underside - what Reporter Joseph Lelyveld calls "one of the least-known countries in the world."' - editor's note on rear flap
- Jacket Condition: Very Good
- Binding Condition: Fine
- Size: 4to
