Moutoussamy-Ashe, Jeanne

1951-present · Contribution: 1975-present

Photographer; author

Spent five years (1977-1982) documenting the Gullah Geechee community of South Carolina’s Daufuskie Island before development transformed it, publishing the results as Daufuskie Island (1982) with a foreword by Alex Haley, and authored Viewfinders (1986), the first book-length history of Black women photographers in America

Press & Photography — collage image
Press & Photography

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.

Quick facts

Born
1951, Chicago, Illinois
Active since
1975
Category
Press & Photography
Best known for
Documenting the Gullah Geechee of Daufuskie Island; historian of Black women photographers

Impact on the world

Moutoussamy-Ashe preserved a distinct Creole culture on the brink of erasure and, in Viewfinders, recovered a century and a half of overlooked Black women photographers from obscurity.

Sources

  1. Whitney Museum of American Art

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