In a Dazzling New Exhibition at The Met, Photographer Anastasia Samoylova Puts Florida in Focus

Earlier this month, Samoylova became the first living female photographer to headline an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 33 years. Curated by Mia Feinman, “Floridas: Anastasia Samoylova and Walker Evans,” on view until May 11, 2025, pairs images from Samoylova’s Floridas series with Florida-themed works by Walker Evans, selected from The Met’s vast archive.

In addition, an extensive survey of Samoylova’s work, “Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation,” will open at Saatchi Gallery in London on November 5, accompanied by a career-spanning monograph from Thames & Hudson. And next year the Miami-based artist will debut a major solo exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach.

Needless to say, Samoylova is quickly cementing her position as one of the most intriguing image makers working today—though her path to success has been anything but linear. “The title of my latest book, Adaptation, reflects the many geographic and cultural transitions I’ve experienced throughout my life,” she explains.

Photo: Courtesy of Anastasia Samoylova

The daughter of a Russian literature teacher and a geologist, she came of age in Moscow in the 1990s and early aughts and received her MA in environmental design from the Russian State University for the Humanities. Although at the time, Samoylova found it “utterly impossible” to believe that she could ever sustain herself as an artist, it was at school that she first took an interest in photography. With a camera purchased for her by her mother, she eventually began freelancing as a commercial photographer and worked with agencies and numerous clients in Russia before relocating to the American Midwest to pursue an MFA at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, which she completed in 2011.

After several years as a college professor, primarily teaching the history of photography, Samoylova took a leap of faith and moved to Miami, committing herself entirely to her creative career. “At that point in my life, I realized that things weren’t fully aligning with what I wanted, so I gave myself two years to develop a freelance practice and see where that would take me,” she recalls.

The first observational photographs Samoylova took in Miami evolved into her project FloodZone, an environmentally driven series that considers the city’s volatile weather patterns and the harrowing impact of rising sea levels. This body of work became the centerpiece of her first museum exhibition, at the USF Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa in 2020.