Reflects Back Our Broken Understanding

AnastasiaSamoylova_LandscapeSublime
FROM KOLAJ #20

Anastasia Samoylova’s Artist Portfolio

Anastasia Samoylova is a landscape photographer with a unique practice that uses collage in its process. She is interested in environmentalism, consumerism and the picturesque, and in particular, how the portrayal of idyllic landscapes and an aestheticized environment contributes to our thinking about the natural world. To do this, Samoylova mines public domain image libraries to create elaborate three-dimensional tableaus which she photographs as if they are still life. This process is similar to how David Elliott composes his paintings or how Maureen Williams creates her scanography.

A portfolio of Samoylova’s work appears in KOLAJ #20. To see the complete Artist Portfolio, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Get a Copy of the Issue.

collages-by-anastasia-samoylova

The result is as if someone had taken a picture of a broken mirror the moment all the pieces were flying about. The composition is kinetic. The effect is disconcerting, as if the image reflects back to us our broken understanding of the world.

A portfolio of Samoylova’s work appears in KOLAJ #20. To see the complete Artist Portfolio, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Get a Copy of the Issue.

Anastasia Samoylova was born in Moscow, received an MA from Russian State University for the Humanities, and an MFA from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. She served as an assistant professor of photography at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She is currently based in Miami, where she is an artist resident at the Fountainhead Studios.

Image: (top)
Sunny Day in the Mountains from “Landscape Sublime”
by Anastasia Samoylova
32″x40″
archival pigment print
Edition of 5
2015

Image: (centre)
collages by Anastasia Samoylova