Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
© Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
© Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
© Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
Special Photography Exhibition
On view through May 25, 2008
Nearly three decades ago, photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, wife of the late tennis great Arthur Ashe, took her camera to Daufuskie Island, off the coast of South Carolina near Hilton Head, to document the lives of the Gullah culture, whose way of life and language is an enduring synthesis of African and American elements.
Invited into the community by these descendants of freed African slaves who had purchased the land from the original plantation owners, Moutoussamy-Ashe found herself enraptured by the people of Daufuskie Island and recorded their lives through this emotional photography project.
In 1982 Moutoussamy-Ashe, published her photographs in Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay (University of South Carolina Press, 1982). Now, 25 years later, this rare community has changed irrevocably. The arresting photographs capture a local culture on the verge of dissolution and displacement, now preserved primarily through pictures and memory.
More than 60 of these black-and-white photographs taken from 1977 to 1981 are included in the special photography exhibition, Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe. Combining photographs originally published in her book and newly released original prints, the exhibition transports visitors back in time for an intimate look into this unique group of African-Americans.
Moutoussamy-Ashe’s photographs delve deeply into an aspect of American culture often forgotten. Today her images represent the only documentation of many of the homes on Daufuskie Island, which have largely been replaced by commercial redevelopment. Although the Gullah still have a smaller presence on Daufuskie Island, the residents’ lives have been forever changed by modernization and development.
Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe is included with Museum admission and is free for members.
The book that inspired this collection, Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay, is available for purchase in the Museum Store.
Daufuskie Island is sponsored by Merrill Lynch.
Dates subject to change without notice.