Trees in Fog

About the Photographer

Samoylova, Anastasia

Russian, b. 1984

Encompassing both the traditions of landscape and still life photography, Anastasia Samoylova's images are a visual interplay between representation and abstraction. In her series "Landscape Sublime" (2013 -2014), Samoylova is interested in the romanticized and mass distributed genre of nature photography. Her photographs, carefully composed in the studio, utilize images appropriated from the internet of mountains, trees, flowers and the ocean to create new, disorienting compositions. Contorting the found images amid colorful and reflective materials and shapes, Samoylova’s structural layered images generate a new territory from conventional interpretations of the landscape.

In the series FloodZone, Samoylova turns her lens toward the concern of rising sea levels. This series began when Samoylova moved to
Miami in 2016. Her welcome to the region was the hottest summer ever recorded in a climate that is already distinctly tropical. On daily walks, she began to realize how seductive elements of the environment, such as the lush color palette and coastal light, disguised the inharmonious relationship between the rising real estate market and the ocean's inevitable advancement on the shoreline. Luxury properties are sold in high-risk flood areas. Investors seem to be benign to the idea that Miami is slipping into the ocean. Somoylova challenges our perception of a coastal paradise by photographing the nuances of a community faced with flood zones.

Anastasia Samoylova completed her MA in Environmental Design from Russian State University of Humanities (2007), and MFA from Bradley University, Peoria, IL (2011). She has been included in many exhibitions, nationally and internationally, including at the Aperture Foundation, New York, NY (2016); the Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA (2015); and the Contemporary Arts Center, Peoria, IL (2013), among many others.