Ernest Cole

That first day I saw them standing in their patient lines, some queuing up to be fingerprinted, others stripped naked for mass medical examination. Some had been issued a tunic and pants, the cost of which would be deducted from their first wages and an identification bracelet.

—Ernest Cole, 1962

The Mines body of work is emotionally charged for me because I have a family history of relatives working in the mines. My grandfather came to Johannesburg in the 1960s, around the same time Cole was making these works and he worked in the gold mines. He never returned home. He was one of thousands of black labourers who disappeared into the gold rush. One either got unlucky, injured, killed or died of illness. Or became a fugitive trying to escape the terrible working and living conditions. The Mines is a reminder of the destruction of Black lives and family structures. When looking at Cole’s photographs, I cannot help but reflect and relate - as they remind me of things that haven’t changed enough in democratic South Africa.

Cole was not only a ninja photographer, as his fellows described him, but also an astute image-maker. He mastered a level of blending that is reminiscent of greats like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. The smoky image of the mine worker queuing for the Last Supper evokes a spiritual quality, much like the dust swirling in a mine shaft. When I see this image of a young man lost in his thoughts I can’t help but think of jazz musician Hugh Masekela’s “The Coal Train” and imagine his thoughts dwelling on loved ones back in the rural areas.

—Lindokuhle Sobekwa, Photographer, Deutsche Börse Foundation Prize Finalist