House of Bondage, Ernest Cole’s landmark photographic book, documented the everyday racial oppression of apartheid South Africa. Yet, it was only in leaving South Africa that Cole, then a young, largely unknown black photographer, was able to publish this work, and in the US and Europe that his photographs reached audiences through magazines and other publications.

This presentation considers Cole’s project and his journey, positioning both photographer and book in a wider context of Cold War, civil rights struggle and Black Power in the US – and reflecting on the complex biographies of the photographer and his photographs.

Details on how to access the event will be confirmed upon registration. Please check your junk folders if you haven't received an email from TPG staff confirming your place.

Biography

Darren Newbury is Professor of Photographic History at the University of Brighton. He is the author of Defiant Images: Photography and Apartheid South Africa (2009), People Apart: 1950s Cape Town Revisited. Photographs by Bryan Heseltine (2013) and Cold War Photographic Diplomacy: The US Information Agency and Africa (2024); and co-editor of The African Photographic Archive: Research and Curatorial Strategies (2015) and Women and Photography in Africa: Creative Practices and Feminist Challenges (2021). In 2020 he received the Royal Anthropological Institute Photography Committee Award for his contribution to the study of photography and anthropology.

Ticketing

By booking for this event you agree to our Terms & Conditions.