Amid the atmospheric forests of Japan’s Yamagata prefecture, Kazuaki Koseki calls upon delightful woodland collaborators in his series Summer Faeries. Pulsing like tiny lightbulbs in the night air, the artist describes himebotaru—fireflies—as “artists who paint light on the forest.”
Fireflies are a popular summertime phenomenon in Japan, when the insects appear especially in the vicinity of waterways. Koseki, who is based in Yamagata, had heard of the firefly populations in the region’s forests, and he was determined to see them firsthand. He picked up a detailed map and hoped that research into their habitat would help to pinpoint a likely location.
“I drove my car deep into the forest to the end of the forest road and started walking alone deep into the forest at night, without moonlight,” Koseki tells Colossal. After hiking for about a half hour and resisting his instinctive fear of the forest at night, he observed a single, yellow, winking light.
“The silhouette of the forest became faintly visible,” the artist says, and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, the “countless lights continued to glow. It was like a starry sky twinkling.”
Koseki snaps multiple exposures in a single frame, layering the glowing spheres of light and parabolic flight paths of numerous fireflies over landscapes featuring trees, waterfalls, woodland creatures, and distant horizons.
Explore more of Koseki’s work on his website and Instagram.
