Anastasia Samoylova – Adaptation

Review by Gerhard Clausing •

The work of Anastasia Samoylova, as shown in this first photobook retrospective and also in an exhibition at the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art (through May 11, 2025) was a delightful discovery for me. Not only does she create landscapes and other scapes that have meaning and a certain timelessness, but the meaning that her images contain is also tied to our present moment and to developments that we are experiencing ourselves right now.

The book is divided into six sections: Landscapes Sublime, Floodzone, Breakfasts, Floridas, Paintings and Collages, and Image Cities, as you can also see from the table of contents shown in the opening image below. The word Sublime might possibly be a euphemism, and the fact that the state of Florida is mentioned in the plural makes you wonder—and that’s just for starters.

As we look at the selected images as shown here, we are struck by the following: Her view of things incorporates that which has been as well as that which is now. An amusement park is displayed as a shadow of its former self, visualized through abandoned remnants left over in a corner. Some of the collages, such as the ones on pages 14 and 15, reflect moments of inconvenience, possibly even disturbances and fragmentation. The image of people on the beach with the boat might mirror our society’s appetite for breaking news, literally and figuratively. The sunset-hued beauty of palm trees in Florida hints at the possibility of impending environmental disaster. The image of a breakfast with feline accompaniment does not look too peaceful either. And so it goes with the rest of the images shown here—we find impediments that may not indicate a perfect world that our dreams might wish for or naively expect.

Anastasia immigrated from Russia and found her place in Florida. The adaptation that is required for such a move is reflected in her work and also in the book’s title. The level of abstraction that the images display perhaps also appeals to a strong wish for a return to a more wholesome and together environment. David Campany in the foreword calls her “one of the most original image makers to have emerged in recent years.” He goes on to observe that the images reflect similarities between the two countries, in that her provocative vision exposes us to both systems, where information and misinformation coexist and are no longer clearly distinguishable. I see her work as a wonderful challenge that invites us to contemplate our fragmented world full of contradictions and fuzziness.

Three extensive essays by David Campany, Lucy Sante, and Mia Fineman cast further light on the work of this innovative and important artist. The images in this book are printed well on generously large pages and are a joy to behold. Highly recommended!

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Gerhard Clausing, Editor of the PhotoBook Journal, is an author and artist from Southern California.

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Anastasia Samoylova – Adaptation

Photographer: Anastasia Samoylova (born in Moscow, Russia; lives in Florida, USA)

Texts: David Campany, Lucy Sante, Mia Fineman

Language: English

Hardback with cover image; 224 numbered pages with 195 images; 10 x 12.25 inches (25.5 x 31 cm); printed and bound in China by Artron Art (Group) Co., Ltd; ISBN 978-0-500-02718-9

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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.