Chasing butterflies around the globe changed this photographer’s worldview [Video]

In the early days of the pandemic, when most people couldn’t travel anywhere, Lucas Foglia became obsessed with the butterflies that go almost everywhere. 

Painted lady butterflies, found on almost every continent, are among the planet’s most prolific travellers. One population, in particular, makes an epic, multigenerational journey every year from Europe to Africa and back.

So in 2021, as soon as Foglia was able to board a plane, the San Francisco Bay Area photographer set off for Italy to find the butterflies that had captured his imagination, and work with the scientists tracking what’s believed to be the world’s longest butterfly migration route.

But the result of that journey, the photography book Constant Bloom, is as much about humans as it is about butterflies, says Foglia. 

“In the beginning of the project, I thought I was going to just photograph butterflies and follow them wherever they went,” Foglia told As It Happenshost Nil Köksal. “But pretty soon I realized …