Nightairs by Samuel James

Twenty-six species of the insect family Lampyridae, commonly known as fireflies, have been identified in the foothills of Appalachian Ohio.

For a brief moment at the very end of their lives, nineteen of these species communicate with silent, bioluminescent displays of wildly diverse flash patterns and colors—a kaleidoscopic procession of light varying in precise accordance to habitat, season and time of night.

Since 2019, Samuel James has recorded these dialects of light with long exposures, exploring one luminous facet of life in the temperate deciduous forests of southern Ohio as it evolves through seasonal change atop eroded mountains and the stratified sediments of ancient seas.