In a new body of work, critically acclaimed photographer Anastasia Samoylova retraces Berenice Abbott’s (1898–1991) historic photographic road trip from the 1950s. On the seventieth anniversary of the project, Samoylova follows in Abbott’s footsteps, probing the myths of freedom, movement, and belonging embedded in the idea of the open road.
Anastasia Samoylova’s series ‘Atlantic Coast’ will premiere in Europe at Galerie Caroline O’Breen, Amsterdam (Sept–Oct 2025) and in the US at The Norton Museum of Art, Florida (Nov 2025), and will be accompanied by a book published with Aperture.
In 1954, photographer Berenice Abbott set out to photograph US Route 1, one of the oldest and most historically significant roads in America. Running from the Canadian border in Maine to the southern tip of Florida, this route evolved over centuries from small coastal roads linking the entire Atlantic Coast. Abbott’s project captured small towns and major cities on the brink of modernization.
The increased reliance on private transportation ever since has reshaped entire ecosystems, both rural and urban, and much of what Abbott documented no longer exists. Samoylova’s ‘Atlantic Coast’ revisits the exact same landscape today, revealing how commerce, industry, and ecological change continue to transform communities and landscapes. Her photographs portray not only dislocation and loss, but also the resilience of people and wildlife adapting to new realities. The series reflects on how relentless expansion and development dominate both the environment and daily life.
Rooted in an American context, Atlantic Coast speaks to a global condition: how modernization and globalized growth determine our relationship to place, heritage, and belonging. By revisiting Abbott’s journey, Samoylova explores the universal tension between idealized imagery and lived realities, showing how landscapes everywhere are vulnerable to human ambition and environmental pressures.