Fernbank Museum Hosts New Photo Exhibition

Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

ATLANTA (February 15, 2008) — Nearly three decades ago, photographer
Jeanne Moutoussamy-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.

In 1982 Moutoussamy-Ashe, wife of the late tennis great Arthur
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.

A selection of these photographs is featured in the special
exhibition, Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe,
on view at Fernbank Museum of Natural History from February 21-May 25,
2008. Sponsored by Merrill Lynch, the exhibition highlights the rich
cultural legacy of the island's Gullah community in conjunction with
the national celebration of Black History Month.

"Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe has captured the people and places of
Daufuskie Island in a way that brings not only the physical beauty of
the island and its people to the observer, but layers of emotion and
spirituality as well. Jeanne challenges us to not only look at the
photographic emulsion forming lush imagery, but to see and read into
the spiritual layers of this vanishing way of life," said James Hays,
Vice President of Exhibitions at Fernbank Museum.

More than 60 black-and-white photographs taken from 1977 to 1981
provide a documentary-style glimpse into the daily life of the Gullah
people. 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.

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 group known for preserving more of
their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other
community in the United States.

At the publication of Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay, Alex
Haley wrote, "The emotional reaction of an artist to what she saw,
heard and felt is why you and I can now hold in our hands the quite
special evidence of Jeanne's mastery of her profession…" In the
preface to the book's new edition, which was honored with an Essence
Literary Award for African-American literature in early 2008, the
exhibition's guest curator, Deborah Willis, writes, "these photographs
have a special connection to history and memory—the history of a place
and the memory of the subjects documented. These portraits of
African-Americans, whose ancestors preserved a unique culture through
foodways, religion, storytelling and work, were made at a specific
time in African-American history."

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.

Having published four books, Moutoussamy-Ashe has displayed a
proclivity toward exploring the African-American experience and the
history of African-American photography. Over the last 30 years she
has had frequent group and solo exhibitions at museums and galleries
around the world including New York's Museum of Modern Art, Whitney
Museum of American Art and Brooklyn Museum of Art; Washington, D.C.'s
Smithsonian and National Portrait Gallery; and other prestigious
institutions around the world. Publications such as Life, The New York
Times, People and the Associated Press also have featured her work.

Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe is
included with Museum admission. Tickets are $15 for adults, $14 for
students/seniors, $13 for children ages 3-12, and free for members and
children 2 years old and under. The exhibition will be on view
February 21-May 25, 2008.

Fernbank Museum of Natural History is located at 767 Clifton Road
NE in Atlanta. For information call 404.929.6300 or visit
fernbankmuseum.org . To reserve tickets, call 404.929.6400.