Floridas

Exhibition of photographs by Anastasia Samoylova, Miami Beach

Where beaches and palm trees shape the public image, where pink flamingos gather in front of colorful house facades and alligators stray into pools, Anastasia Samoylova scratches at the dazzling facade of an American dream. In her photographic road trip, she presents the Sunshine State Florida as a shimmering fantasy and subtropical dystopia, marked as much by its deep political division as by the effects of the climate crisis. At the same time, Samoylova explores the socio-cultural identity of the Swing State, showing how Florida symbolically represents the polarized present of the USA with its complex past. Her images illustrate both the urban centers with their deceptive advertising promises and luxurious real estate, as well as desolate landscapes or wild nature. They also portray the people who call Florida home. Samoylova’s photographic observations of everyday life follow in the footsteps of legendary American photographers like Berenice Abbott, Robert Frank, or Walker Evans, who also visually explored the USA by traveling in their time. As a contemporary photo artist, she breathes new life into the typically American genre of road trip photography and contrasts the traditionally male-dominated image of America with a female perspective.

The exhibition was curated in 2023 by Dr. Kathrin Schönegg for C/O Berlin.

With the kind support of Amerikahaus München