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Background information
"After the publication of his landmark 1967 book 'House of Bondage' on the horrors of apartheid, Ernest COLE moved to New York and received a grant from the Ford Foundation to document Black communities in cities and rural areas of the United States. He released very few images from this body of work while he was alive. Thought to be lost entirely, the negatives of his American pictures resurfaced in Sweden in 2017. He photographed extensively in New York City, documenting the lively community of Harlem, including a thrilling series of color photographs, as he turned his talent to street photography across Manhattan. In 1968 he traveled to Chicago, Cleveland, Memphis, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, as well as rural areas of the South, capturing the mood of different Black communities in the months leading up to and just after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Content
The pictures in the photographic volume 'The True America' by Ernest COLE both reflect a newfound hope and freedom that he felt in America, and an incisive eye for inequality as he became increasingly disillusioned by the systemic racism he witnessed. This treasure trove of rediscovered work provides an important window into American society and redefines his oeuvre, presenting a fuller picture of the life and work of a man who fled South Africa and exposed life under apartheid to the world." (© Aperture, 2024)