Ernest Cole was born near Pretoria in 1940. Leaving school at 17 to become a photographer, he secured staff jobs and freelance assignments for newspapers and magazines for blacks—honing his skills with a correspondence course from the New York Institute of Photography. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s book The People of Moscow, in 1960 Cole embarked on a project to document the lives of his people which resulted in House of Bondage.