First published in 1967, The House of Bondage is a seminal photobook that revealed the brutal realities of apartheid in South Africa. Ernest Cole’s images document the daily hardships faced by Black South Africans—displacement, segregation, overcrowded townships, and oppressive working conditions—offering an unflinching look at systemic injustice.

The twelve prints presented here are part of Cole’s larger House of Bondage series, a courageous project created at great personal risk. Cole smuggled these photographs out of South Africa in 1966, publishing the book abroad, where it became a defining record of apartheid and was immediately banned in his home country.