Anastasia Samoylova, Walker Evans: Floridas; Steidl, 2022

A photo-dialogue on Florida past and present Sunshine state. Swampland paradise. Tourist aspiration. Real-estate racket. Refuge of excess. Political swing-state. Sub-tropical fever dream. With forms of nature and culture found nowhere else, Florida is unique. It is also among the most elusive and misunderstood of places. Anastasia Samoylova (born 1984) has photographed Florida on intensive road trips. Walker Evans (1903–75) photographed it over four decades. Twisting the visual cliches, these two remarkably discerning observers convey Florida’s dizzying combination of fantasy and reality. Evans witnessed modern Florida emerging in the 1930s, with its blend of cultures, waves of tourism, stark beauty and blatant vulgarity. He photographed there until the 1970s, making Polaroids that still feel contemporary. Samoylova inherits what Evans saw coming. With intelligence and humor, she picks her way through the seductions and disappointments of a place that symbolizes the contradictions of the United States today. In Floridas, photographs by Samoylova and Evans are presented in parallel, weaving past and present, switching between black-and-white and color imagery, all complemented by an essay from editor David Campany and a visionary short story by celebrated novelist and Florida resident Lauren Groff.

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