Anastasia Samoylova
“Miami is raising some of its roads and sidewalks, hoping a few inches will be enough, but enough for what? Enough to keep next season's tourists from going elsewhere? Enough to assure citizens that matters are under control? There are serious concerns that the limited fresh water is turning salty. Mostly the place carries on, as do most of America's coastal states, knowing what is coming yet unable, or unwilling to change. Is disaster more easily imaginable than the painful steps that might avert it? Yes, is the horrifying answer. Disaster will come of us doing nothing, while the painful steps would, will, have to be taken actively, and by us all. A poverty of imagination is our biggest challenge.”
— David Campany, from FloodZone essay
“The temperature rises and flooding we face will also bring greater levels of disease and increased likelihood of pandemics. None of these problems exist in isolation. Our situation requires a holistic understanding and response.”
— Anastasia Samoylova
Artist Anastasia Samoylova.
About Anastasia Samoylova
(Moscow, Russia, 1984)
She lives in Miami, Florida.
Anastasia Samoylova is a Russian-American artist who moves between observational photography, studio practice and installation. Although her work takes many forms, a central concern is the place images occupy in our understanding and misunderstanding of the world. Her project FloodZone, photographed in the Southern United States, reworks our expectations of coastal paradise into a psychological portrait of communities faced with rising sea levels. Noting how the corporate imagery of tourism and the real estate boom mask the realities of a land in crisis, Samoylova developed a way of photographing that carefully opens up the dissonance. Anastasia Samoylova’s work is in the collections at the Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, and ArtSlant Collection in Paris. She has completed a number of artist residencies including Mass MoCA, Prairie Center for the Arts (Schaumburg, IL), Latitude Chicago and ArtCenter South Florida.
Artist website: anasamoylova.com
Gallery website: dotfiftyone.com
FloodZone book: steidl.de
Artist Instagram: @anasamoylova