Photography Today - Artist Studio Visit with Anastasia Samoylova

Module Description

Part of the WOPHA Institute online course Collecting Photography Beyond the Canon, this session offers an exclusive insight into the studio practice of a leading contemporary photographer. Through a behind-the-scenes studio visit, participants will learn from an artist's perspective how photographic projects are developed, produced and transformed into editions and publications, while considering the different ways photographic work can be presented to audiences and collectors.

This session will provide an opportunity to explore the relationship between artistic production, publishing, collecting and exhibition-making, and to gain a deeper understanding of the decisions that shape the circulation and reception of contemporary photography.

Topics to be covered

• The development of photographic projects from concept and research through to finished works
• Photographic editions, their production, formats and role within the art market and collections
• The relationship between photographic practice, books, publications and dissemination
• How photographs are selected, sequenced, framed and presented in different contexts
• The practical and conceptual processes involved in sustaining a contemporary photographic practice

Learning objectives

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Understand key aspects of contemporary photographic production and studio practice
• Identify the different roles that editions, publications and presentation formats play in the circulation and reception of photographic work
• Analyse how an artist’s choices around production and presentation contribute to the meaning and impact of their work
• Gain insight into the relationship between artistic practice, publishing, collecting and the wider photographic ecosystem
• Reflect on how photographic works can be adapted and communicated across different formats and audiences

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Faculty

Anastasia Samoylova is an American artist working across photography, painting, and installation. Her practice examines how contemporary life is shaped and mythologized through images, exploring the intersections of environmental crisis, consumer spectacle, politics, and visual culture.

Her first monograph, FloodZone, brought recognition for its portrayal of climate vulnerability and spectacle in South Florida. Floridas expanded this inquiry into a portrait of the state as a landscape of fantasy, contradiction, and power, culminating in Floridas: Anastasia Samoylova and Walker Evans at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image Cities examined media saturation, advertising, and visual excess in global urban spaces, while her recent project Atlantic Coast retraces Berenice Abbott’s Route 1 journey in reverse, from Florida to Maine.

Samoylova’s work has been exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Saatchi Gallery, C/O Berlin, Fundación MAPFRE, and the George Eastman Museum. Her work is held by MoMA, The Met, and Pérez Art Museum Miami, among others.