To the Dark and the Endless Skies
© Samuel James, Photuris versicolor complex, bottomland, Appalachian Ohio, 2024;
FIREFLYS
In the Appalachian mountains fireflies set the landscape alight with their incandescent beauty. Naturalist and photographic artist Samuel James has spent years capturing the carnival of light, hoping to remind us of the incredible wonder of the natural world.
“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 diverse flash patterns and colors—a procession of codes varying in precise accordance to habitat, season and time of night. With long exposures, I have recorded these dialects of light since 2019, exploring one luminous facet of life in the temperate deciduous forests of Ohio’s Allegheny Plateau, which host a near-infinite diversity of natural forms evolving through seasonal change atop eroded mountains and the stratified sediments of ancient seas.” writes Samuel James in his book Nightairs.
James is no stranger to telling important stories about our natural world. His photography in Lagos, Nigeria, and his 2012 project, “The Water of My Land,” captured the devastating destruction in the Niger Delta by the oil industry. This would come to define the theme of his work - “survival and extinction, the beauty and brutality of nature, and the correlation between habitat and the human soul.”
© Samuel James, Photinus marginellus and Photuris fireflies at dusk, Appalachian Ohio, 2022;
MOTHS
"Moths are misunderstood creatures and ofter overlooked," says Breakey. "But when you take a moment to truly see them, their staggering beauty and mysterious transformation into winged creatures is nothing short of fantastic."
© Kate Breakey, Scarlet Tiger Moth, Callimorpha dominula, n.d.;
Artist Kate Breakey puts these glorious winged beauties under her microscope. Moths tend to be given less attention than butterflies but are no less important to our bio-sphere. In the tradition of naturalist illustrators Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) and John James Audubon (1785-1851), and botanical photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932), Breakey is asking us to look again and “reflect on the unseen splendor of the living world and the need to protect it before it vanishes.”
Giant Leopard Moth, Hypercompe scribonia, n.d.
archival pigment print with pastel and pencil
24" x 36"
Fireflys and Moths come together in this wonderful new exhibition. Included is the work by visual artist Nika Kaiser. She reflects on the need to explore the idea of deep time, interspecies connection and how the future of both humans and the biosphere are deeply intertwined.
© Nika Kaiser, Vital Body 1, 2024
A must see exhibition.
The work of these artists is important, profound and breathtaking in beauty.
To the Dark and the Endless Skies
On view December 3, 2024, to February 8, 2025,
At Etherton Gallery, 340 S. Convent Ave,
Tucson, Arizona
(in Tucson’s historic Barrio Viejo neighborhoo.)
You are invited to the opening reception on December 7, 2024
© Samuel James, Photinus pyralis and Photuris fireflies at dusk, Appalachian Ohio, 2019;
SAMUEL JAMES is featured in the NATURA edition.
very laboratory