Russian-American photographer Anastasia Samoylova has completed an ambitious 2,000-mile photographic journey along the historic U.S. Route 1, traveling from her home state of Florida to Maine. The project, which resulted in a new monograph titled "Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast," retraces the footsteps of legendary photographer Berenice Abbott, who documented the same route in 1954.
Samoylova's journey draws inspiration from Abbott's prescient work, which predicted seismic changes to small towns and major cities along Route 1 brought by the rapidly expanding Interstate Highway System. Seventy years later, Samoylova's 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.
The project also connects Samoylova to another photography great, Robert Frank, whose legendary book "The Americans" defined a new visual language of cultural critique and disillusionment. Like Frank, Samoylova immigrated to the United States at age 23, drawn to the contradictions and promises of American life. Her work picks up Frank's visual thread in a country now further fragmented by environmental crisis, political nostalgia, and unchecked development.
Samoylova's photographs span the entire length of Route 1, capturing diverse subjects from a fifth-generation farmer in Garysburg, North Carolina, to a woman in a pink hat in Homestead, Florida. Her work includes striking images such as "Jesus Saves" in Charleston, South Carolina (2020), "Two Cars" in East Harlem, New York (2024), and "House by Water" in Lubec, Maine (2024). Additional photographs feature a house flag and historic reenactor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, fireworks at Fort Knox in Prospect, Maine, and a covered car in Waycross, Georgia.
The photographer's work operates at the intersections of environmentalism, consumerism, politics, and the picturesque. Her book features vibrant color and black-and-white photographs that draw on the visual vernacular of tourism, advertising, and the American road trip itself. This approach adds a distinctive chapter to the storied lineage of photographers who have documented American life and landscapes.
"Anastasia Samoylova: Atlantic Coast" is published by Aperture and was released on November 18, 2025, with a retail price of $65. The book's cover features Samoylova's photograph "Reflection in Black Thunderbird, Palm Beach, Florida, 2024." The release coincides with two solo exhibitions of the same title, with one opening at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, on November 15, and another at Dot Fiftyone Gallery in Miami, Florida, opening on November 30.
