Ernest Cole, A Lens in Exile at Autograph, Rivington Street, East London – Taking bad photographs, and on just a phone, of these wonderfully powerful photographs, that has to be wrong, almost disrespectful, I do so in an attempt to offer some flavour, a hint, and really the disrespectful thing would be to not cover this immense exhibition at East London’s Autograph Gallery.

I was expecting something good, but not this powerfully good, not this compelling. You really need to grab the chance to see these pieces, every single photograph tells so so much, every one of them needs a second glance, well no, not a glance, that’s disrespectful as well, everyone of them deserves your proper time and full attention. There’s one, rightly blown up so that it is far bigger than you, of a woman with a pushchair on a busy street, a photograph that will hold your attention for what will seem like hours – who is this woman? Who are the other people? What are the many stories? Who’s kid is she pushing? What is that older white woman thinking? What are the all think? And just look at her face, her life there for all to see, there’s so so much in just that one photograph, if that was the only piece on the wall then it would be more than enough. These are remarkable photographs, observations, not moments captured, they are far more than just moments, there is so so much here. 

There are two major Ernest Cole exhibitions on in London at the moment, I imagine this one of his New York work will be (understandably) overshadowed a touch by the House of Bondage show at The Photographers’ Gallery, an exhibition of his South African apartheid work – “One of the first Black freelance photographers in South Africa, which was only possible due to his reclassification from ‘Black’ to ‘Coloured’ under apartheid, he documented everyday life with assignments for Drum magazine and The New York Times, amongst others. Cole photographed the precarious living conditions of Black South Africans, from mine labourers to domestic workers in white households, as well as the state of the transport and health sectors. He paid particularly close attention to children and young people who were denied a proper education under the Bantu Education Act, which was introduced while Cole was still in high school and caused him to leave in protest” – don’t let that show (which I am yet to see, I am itching to get there), keep you from this one, this is one of the most powerful exhibitions I have ever seen, and not just photography exhibitions, this is a powerful powerful exhibition that it is almost impossible to drag yourself away from, there’s just so so much here…      

“Offering a rare and reflective insight into the seminal South African photographer Ernest Cole, A Lens in Exile is the first exhibition of his photographs documenting New York City during the height of the civil rights movement in America.  Best known for his radical images documenting the violence of apartheid, Cole fled South Africa in 1966 and was officially made stateless in 1968. In a televised interview 1969 he expressed a hope of being liberated from the day-to-day experience of racism. Focused on the humanity of everyday life, Cole spent his first years in New York City photographing Harlem and Manhattan, focusing his lens on the experience of living in a racialised America.

Framed against the struggle for civil rights, Cole captured moments of emergent black awakenings, unfolding within public and private spaces by the forces of Black Pride and Black Power. These remarkably intuitive photographs – documenting protest, politics and daily existence – were forged through a transgressive challenge to the status quo of American society. Despite Cole’s observant eye confronting America in transition, these social documentary images revealed a chasm. Disillusioned and isolated in exile, he began to reflect that the systemic exclusion and segregation he experienced in South Africa was also prevalent in America. In his own words “it wasn’t any better: there was no freedom”.

The photographs displayed here were taken between 1967–1972, representing a small chapter of Cole’s 60,000 images taken while in exile. In 2017, thousands of his negatives believed to have been missing for more than 40 years were discovered in a Stockholm bank vault. The Ernest Cole Family Trust was subsequently established to ensure Cole’s important photographic legacy is preserved”.

I can’t recommend this highly enough… the exhibition runs until until 12th Oct 2024. (sw)

Autograph is at 1 Rivington Place, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3BA. Entry is free. the gallery space is open on the following days: Wednesdays 11:00 – 18:00, Thursdays 11:00 – 21:00, Fridays 11:00 – 18:00, Saturday 12:30 – 18:00. “Book free tickets and find out more on Autograph’s website” so it says, although I’ve never booked, and no one has ever stopped me just walking in and they are rather friendly when you do just walk in.

There’s some good Ernest Cole background here. Details of the other Cole exhibition – House of Bondage at The Photographers’ Gallery can be found here

As always, do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show and get a flavour but do remember aking bad photographs, on just a phone, of these wonderfully powerful photographs, that has to be wrong, almost disrespectful, I do so in an attempt to offer some flavour, a hint…