Nearly three decades ago, photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe took her camera to Daufuskie Island, off the coast of South Carolina, to document the lives of African Americans, Gullah-Geechee, whose way of life and language, Gullah, is an enduring synthesis of African and American elements.

Now, twenty-five years later, this rare community, whose families had lived in the islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia since before the civil war, has changed irrevocably. Moutoussamy-Ashe's photographs remind us of the significant contributions of people of African origin to American life; these images delve deeply into an important aspect of American culture often missing from history books. The poignant photographs of Daufuskie Island capture a people and a place, then on the verge of dissolution and displacement, now preserved in memory and pictures.

Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe is sponsored by Merrill Lynch, with additional support provided with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Guest Curator: Deborah Willis, Ph.D., New York University