Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast

New York, November 11, 2025—This November, Aperture releases the monograph Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast, a contemporary photographic journey along historic US Route 1, tracing the spine of the East Coast from Florida to Maine. The book’s release coincides with a solo exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, opening on November 15.

In 1954, the American photographer Berenice Abbott set out to document the historic US Route 1, predicting seismic changes to small towns and major cities along the road brought by the rapidly expanding Interstate Highway System. Inspired by Abbott’s acute and poetic observations of life along Route 1, Samoylova retraced Abbott’s trip seventy years later, in reverse—beginning in her home state of Florida and ending in Maine. Her photographs explore the enduring impact of Route 1 as a corridor of commerce, migration, and myth, revealing how the American landscape continues to be shaped by infrastructure, ideology, and illusion.

Samoylova’s journey as an artist runs parallel to that of Robert Frank, whose legendary book The Americans (1958 and republished by Aperture in 2024 for the artist’s centennial) defined a new visual language of cultural critique and disillusionment. Like Frank, Samoylova immigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-three, drawn to the contradictions and promises of American life. Atlantic Coast picks up Frank’s visual thread in a country further fragmented by environmental crisis, political nostalgia, and unchecked development, adding a distinctive chapter to a storied lineage of photographers.

The book features vibrant color and black-and-white photographs that draw on the visual vernacular of tourism, advertising, and the road trip itself. Samoylova’s layered images capture the tension between the remnants of mid-century optimism and a deeper sense of social and ecological dislocation. More than just a documentation of a road trip, Atlantic Coast is a meditation on memory, mythmaking, and the enduring appeal of the American dream, even as its foundations crack.

Copublished by Aperture and Norton Museum of Art, Atlantic Coast features essays by writer and critic Aruna D’Souza and Norton Museum of Art’s Senior Curator of Photography Lauren Richman. This book was made possible with generous support from an anonymous donor, S. B. Cooper and Rebecca Besson and the Besson/Cooper Fund, and Claudia and Gunnar Overstrom. Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast is available at aperture.org/books.

A range of public programs and book signings with the artist will be held in Paris, West Palm Beach, and Miami, with details available at aperture.org/events.

_
Anastasia Samoylova is a Miami-based photographer who explores the intersections of environmentalism, consumerism, politics, and the picturesque. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina; C/O Berlin; Victoria and Albert Museum, Dundee, Scotland; Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid and Barcelona; Amerikahaus Munich; George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; and Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna. She has published four critically acclaimed books: FloodZone (2019); Floridas (2022); Image Cities (2023), published in conjunction with her winning the inaugural KBr Photo Award; and Adaptation (2024). Samoylova’s photographs are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Pérez Art Museum Miami; High Museum
of Art, Atlanta; and Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.

Aruna D’Souza is a writer and critic based in New York. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and 4Columns, where she is a member of the editorial advisory board. Her writing has also been published by The Wall Street Journal, ArtNews, Garage, Art Practical, CNN.com, Bookforum, Frieze, Momus, and Art in America.

Lauren Richman is the William and Sarah Ross Soter Senior Curator of Photography at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, and has held curatorial and research roles at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, Bloomington; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth.

–
About Aperture
Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From its base in New York, Aperture connects global audiences and supports artists through its acclaimed quarterly magazine, books, exhibitions, digital platforms, public programs, limited-edition prints, and awards. Established in 1952 to advance “creative thinking, significantly expressed in words and photographs,” Aperture champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society.

Aperture’s programs and operations are made possible by the generosity of our board of trustees, our members, and other individuals, and with major support from 7G Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, Documentary Arts, Ford Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Marta Heflin Foundation, Ishibashi Foundation, Joy of Giving Something, Anne Levy Charitable Trust, Henry Luce Foundation, Mailman Foundation, MurthyNAYAK Foundation, Grace Jones Richardson Trust, San Francisco Foundation, Thomas R. Schiff Foundation, Jane Smith Turner Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Stuart B. Cooper and R. L. Besson, Kate Cordsen and Denis O’Leary, Thomas and Susan Dunn, Agnes Gund, Michael Sonnenfeldt, Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts, with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

–
Press Contacts:
Lauren Van Natten, publicity@aperture.org
Kate Greenberg, kate@arply.co