Born in 1940, Cole, a devout Catholic, received his first camera from a generous white clergyman in very much the same manner that Hugh Masekela received his first trumpet with the aid of Trevor Huddleston. From that moment on it became his means of expression, and a way of life.

Cole was the first photojournalist to expose South Africa's Apartheid system. Risking imprisonment, by printing his images in national publications, he was also on the payroll of the famous anti-Apartheid Drum magazine. But it was not until he wrote the book House of Bondage that his work started to attract worldwide attention. Published in 1967, the book was banned in South Africa a year after Cole was made a permanent exile. He died an untimely, lonely death away from home.

Here is the story of a man brave enough to smuggle his camera into the tightly controlled mining compounds, and to click away at pass arrests with his camera hidden in a paper bag. His life was dedicated to showing the world the reality of Apartheid, and to bring image and light to tales of oppression.