The newest series Floridas by Anastasia Samoylova is a logical follow-up to her FloodZone, a project on rising sea levels. Floridas zooms into one state of Florida to meticulously observe it and reveal its cultural, political, and climatical starkness.
Samoylova sees and shows Florida as a condensed version of the whole US while maintaining an outsider’s perspective and paying homage to Walker Evans. With her vivid bright images and sharp juxtapositions, she offers a test for endurance to the iconic American narratives of the American Dream. Naturally, a subject of the devastating effect of climate change and people's disregard for it can't escape Samoylova's eye.
This project was made through a series of wandering road trips, a traditionally male-dominated genre within American photography. Anastasia expands this field with a female perspective. Her angles are wide and the gaze is straightforward, yet her photography doesn’t reveal the whole story — that is to be discovered through unpeeling the layers of references.
In 2021, her work is shown at Musée des beaux-arts du Locle (CH), Orlando Museum of Art (US), Museum Helmond (NL), The Multimedia Art Museum (RU), The Print Center Philadelphia (US), Chrysler Art Museum (US) and HistoryMiami Museum (US).