Anastasia Samoylova, a Russian-American photographer with a powerful contemporary vision, has made history as the first living female photographer to curate a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in more than 33 years. Her exhibition, titled “Floridas: Anastasia Samoylova and Walker Evans,” marks a significant moment in photography, contemporary art, and the representation of women in elite cultural institutions.
Visual dialogue between the past and the present
The exhibition brings together Samoylova’s work with that of American photography legend Walker Evans, who documented life in the American South during the 20th century. This intergenerational conversation occurs through Samoylova’s sensitive and critical lens, which juxtaposes the cultural heritage and ecological reality of modern Florida.
Her photographs reveal a complex and tense landscape: luxury buildings rising above fragile lagoons, bright colors of advertising that hide natural degradation, and silent traces of climate change that are transforming the geography and the daily lives of residents.
Environmentalism through art
Through this project, Samoylova turns the camera into a tool of critical observation, inviting the viewer to reflect on climate change, aggressive urban development, and man’s relationship with nature. Rather than portraying destruction in dramatic terms, she uses visual irony, seductive colors, and clever framing to create a refined yet disturbing narrative.
"Florida is a living laboratory of modern paradoxes: nature and technology, prosperity and crisis, beauty and destruction. In every frame, there is something that tempts and something that warns," Samoylova said in an interview with Artforum.
A historic achievement for female photographers
The “Floridas” exhibition is not only a personal success for Samoylova, but also a significant moment for the representation of women in contemporary art. For the first time in more than three decades, a living female photographer has taken up such an exhibition space at The Met, breaking institutional precedent and paving the way for a more inclusive vision in the art world.
A trace that remains
Samoylova’s works are more than photographs – they are documents of a rapidly changing era, silent warnings of the future, and visual chronicles of human contradictions. They serve as an invitation to see more clearly, feel more deeply, and act more consciously.
Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/
