US Route 1

Photographer Anastasia Samoylova made the trip up the US east coast, from Florida to Maine.

In 1954, the American photographer Berenice Abbott set out to document the historic US Route 1, predicting seismic changes to small towns and major cities along the road brought by the rapidly expanding Interstate Highway System. Inspired by Abbott’s acute and poetic observations of life along Route 1, Samoylova retraced Abbott’s trip seventy years later.

Samoylova’s photographs explore the enduring impact of Route 1 as a corridor of commerce, migration, and myth, revealing how the American landscape continues to be shaped by infrastructure, ideology, and illusion.