Where the Dark Began to Glow

After a difficult period in our lives, my partner and I moved from Tehran to a small village in 2023, hoping that living closer to nature might help us recover. For several months I did not photograph. One night, while making a star trail image in the yard, I noticed a small moving light in the darkness: a firefly. Although my practice is rooted in nightscape photography and I had previously researched nocturnal life, I was struck by how little was known or documented about fireflies in Iran. That moment became the beginning of an ongoing project. Through repeated visits during each firefly season, and with the help of a local man named Hossein, I have been tracing firefly habitats and the fragile ecosystem they depend on. I will continue the project next June and July. The work brings together personal recovery, nocturnal observation, and an environmental story that remains largely unseen.