Anastasia Samoylova

Anastasia Samoylova (1984; lives in Miami) is a USSR-born American photographer who moves between observational photography, studio practice and installation. Her work explores notions of environmentalism, consumerism and the picturesque. Her FloodZone, an expansive photographic project that began in 2016, reflects and responds to the problem of rising sea levels through a striking case study of Miami. Floridas is a follow-up series, it zooms in the state of Florida and explores it culturally, politically, economically, and climatically. Samoylova’s monographs include FloodZone (2019, Steidl), Floridas (2022, Steidl), and Image Cities (2023, Hatje Cantz).

Most recent presentations include extensive solo exhibitions at C/O Berlin (DE), Fundación MAPFRE Barcelona (ES), and George Eastman Museum (US). In 2023, the work of Anastasia Samoylova will be exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (US) together with the work of Walker Evans. Other exhibitions include a.o. Kunst Haus Wien (AT); Chrysler Museum of Art (US); HistoryMiami Museum (US); Kunsthalle Mannheim (DE), Museum Helmond (NL), The Photographer’s Gallery (UK), Multimedia Art Museum Moscow (RU), Contemporary Art Museum at USF (US), Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle (CH), and Images Vevey Festival (CH). In 2022 Samoylova was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. Her work is in the collections at a.o. George Eastman Museum, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, High Museum of Art Atlanta, Wilhelm-Hack Museum, and Fundación MAPFRE, as well as a growing number of corporate and private art collections.

IMAGE CITIES (2022), shot in New York, Tokyo, London, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Moscow, and Paris, illustrates the growing power of images and the flattening of the cultural and geographic differences that define the world’s metropolises. The monumental products, architectures, and figures that populate these images communicate an uncontested vision for the global city: one that is privatized, impersonal, and consumable.

Floridas (2021) is a layered portrait of contemporary Florida that establishes a dialogue with the oeuvre of Walker Evans. A logical follow-up to FloodZone, Floridas zooms into the state and shows it as a condensed version of the whole US. With her vivid bright images and sharp juxtapositions, Samoylova maintains an outsider’s perspective and offers a test for endurance to the iconic American Dream narratives. It is made through a series of wandering road trips, a traditionally male-dominated genre within American photography, and Anastasia expands it with a female perspective. For more about Floridas, click here

FloodZone (2019) is a photographic account of life on the climatic knife-edge of the southern United States. Sea levels are rising and hurricanes threaten, but this is not a visualisation of disaster or catastrophe. Samoylova’s beautifully subtle and often unsettling images capture the mood of waiting. The colour palette is tropical: lush greens, azure blues, pastel pinks. But the mood is pensive and melancholy. As new luxury high-rises soar, their foundations are in the water. Crumbling walls carry images of tourist paradise. Water is everywhere and water is the problem. Mixing lyric documentary, gently staged photos and epic aerial vistas, FloodZone crosses boundaries to express the deep contradictions of the place. For more about FloodZone, click here

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