FloodZone is Anastasia Samoylova's photographic account of life on the climatic knife-edge of
the southern United States. Sea levels are rising and hurricanes threaten but this is not a
visualization of disaster or catastrophe. These beautifully subtle and often unsettling images
capture the mood of waiting of knowing the climate is changing of living with it. The color
palette is tropical: lush greens azure blues pastel pinks. But the mood is pensive and
melancholy. As new luxury high-rises soar their foundations are in water. Crumbling walls
carry images of tourist paradise. In the heat and humidity nature threatens to return the place
to tangled wilderness. Manatees appear in odd places sensitive to environmental change. Liquid
permeates Samoylova's urban scenes and unexpected views: waves ripples puddles pools
splashes and spray. Water is everywhere and water is the problem. Mixing lyric documentary
gently staged photos and epic aerial vistas FloodZone crosses boundaries to express the deep
contradictions of the place. The carefully paced sequence of photographs arranged as
interlocking chapters make no judgment. They simply show elegant sincere acute and perhaps
redemptive.
