Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation

“One of the most original image makers to have emerged in recent year.” – David Campany

 

The first monograph of trailblazing photographer Anastasia Samoylova is a vital – and gently humorous – meditation on environmentalism, consumer culture and our disorientating times.

Anatasia Samoylova is one of the most dynamic image makers of our time, using her mastery of colour and formal dynamics to explore issues of climate change, consumerism, and the overdevelopment of 21st-century cities. Russian born and now a native of Florida, Samoylova moves between observational photography and studio practice, creating imagery that is absolutely ‘of the moment’ but also drawing from influences including the Soviet Avant Garde, Cubism, Pop Art and the postmodern interest in the blurred lines between image and reality. Across the last decade, Samoylova has assembled a global vision at once sublimely beautiful and incisive in its assessment of the challenges we face.

Published to coincide with a joint exhibition of her work alongside Walker Evans at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, this new book, edited by long-time creative collaborator David Campany, surveys her career to date across six project-centred chapters and an overview of her visual language which, with ever-present intelligent humour, both seduces and gently provokes the viewer in equal measure. Supported by texts by writer and critic Lucy Sante and Met curator Mia Fineman, this first career retrospective will be the book that introduces a rising star in photography to a popular, global audience.

 

“Samoylova’ photography is both critical and fascinating…She sees in the ordinary world the visual cues to reflect on what affects us all and translating it into solid and attractive photographic projects.” – Rica Cerbarano

 

Anastasia Samoylova is an American, born in the USSR in 1984. Her previous books include Floridas (2022), Flood Zone (2019) and Image Cities (2022). David Campany is a renowned writer and curator with particular expertise in American photography. His many books include William Klein: YES (2023), The Open Road: Photography and The American Road Trip (2014) and Walker Evans: the Magazine Work (2014). He is Curator at Large for the International Center of Photography, New York. Lucy Sante is a Belgian-born American writer, critic, artist and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Mia Fineman is Curator of Photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

David Campany is a renowned writer and curator with particular expertise in American photography. His many books include William Klein: YES (2023), The Open Road: Photography and The American Road Trip (2014) and Walker Evans: the Magazine Work (2014). He is Curator at Large for the International Center of Photography, New York.

Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation
Photography by Anastasia Samoylova, Edited by David Company
Thames & Hudson, 5 September 2024
PLC (no jacket), 224 pages, 195 ills.
RRP £45

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