Samuel James is a photographic artist and naturalist from southern Ohio, in the United States. He began working with photography in Lagos, Nigeria, and has since explored themes involving biodiversity and resource extraction in Nigeria and the US. His 2012 project “The Water of My Land,” on the catastrophic effects of the oil industry in the Niger Delta, garnered global recognition, including the International Center for Photography’s Infinity Award and the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award.
More recently he has focused on the study of life in the temperate deciduous forests of Ohio’s Allegheny Plateau, where he lives and incorporates various wildlife conservation, field biology, and land stewardship projects into his artistic photographic practice. His images of fireflies and spiders were featured in Werner Herzog’s 2021 film, Theatre of Thought. His photographs have appeared in many international publications, including The New York Times, FT Magazine, Newsweek, and Harper’s Magazine, for which he has created extensive photo essays on topics including the impact of copper mining on sacred indigenous land in Arizona and Leicester City F.C.’s unprecedented 2015/16 English Premier League title bid. His work on the Eastern Forest at night has been exhibited at the Cincinnati Museum Center’s Museum of Natural History & Science.
His monograph, Nightairs, about the bioluminescent flash codes of fireflies in Appalachian Ohio, was shortlisted for the 2023 Paris Photo–Aperture First PhotoBook Award, and was selected for the 2023 Best Dutch Book Designs.
