In Image Cities, Anastasia Samoylova pursues urban beauty, instead of capturing skylines. From London to Paris, New York to Madrid, the series presents segments of the layered and complex wonders of seventeen different world metropolises. Whether complete or partial, human faces appear in almost all of the photographs in the series. Besides adding depth, these faces bring vibrancy, lending a unique personality to the city in the image. Looking long enough gives the impression that all cities are connected, through some kind
of global telepathic network. The images of the people, that appear integrated with the city, are too oversized to be concealed among the high-rises around them.
Samoylova’s striking imagery stimulates the senses and makes us conjure-up fantasies. As eloquently expressed by artist Saul Steinberg, famed for his city drawings for The New Yorker: ‘The moment I have to learn something new, like new habits, new languages, I myself have something like a rebirth. I reduce myself to the lowest denominator and this is very healthy for an artist. To start all over again’. Wandering through Image Cities gives a similar sense of starting all over again.