Anastasia Samoylova: Image Cities

Imaginaries in reality photography's role in the visual culture of the city

Image Cities is the latest project of photographer Anastasia Samoylova. In the series, carried out in cities across the globe, Samoylova studies the proliferation of photographic images in urban environments. She observes how in our neo-liberal era of networked economic markets and networked imagery the global centers of internationalized money and culture are becoming increasingly aligned and similar. At the same time, however, these cities attempt to promote their individuality, often by repurposing their specific histories. Samoylova’s work reveals how the cities she photographs are moving towards a generic urban landscape of anonymous steel and glass, and it also points to the role photography plays in creating this ideological gap between branded urban identity and lived reality.

About the Author:

Anastasia Samoylova (b. 1984) lives and works in Miami, Florida. Her photographs have been shown at museums in Europe and the USA. She is the winner of numerous prizes including the Fundación MAPFRE’s KBr Photo Award (2021).