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As Thomas searches for Painted Lady butterflies, Erei protects him from wild animals and armed poachers, who may become hostile when interrupted.

As droughts and other extreme weather events reshape landscapes, Painted Lady butterflies adjust their course in search of blooming flowers.

I stood on a cliff in northern Tunisia, overlooking the Mediterranean. A wildfire had blackened the forest. Purple flowers bloomed between charred trunks. I photographed Painted Lady butterflies there, drinking nectar before migrating north. Three teenagers asked for a portrait with the sea behind them. Months later, one called to say his boat landed near my family's village in Italy. He asked if the butterflies arrived safely.

Zembra lies along a butterfly migration path connecting Tunisia to Italy. People seeking refuge in Europe often travel this Central Mediterranean passage.

The Central Mediterranean passage is currently the deadliest migration route for humans.

The Italian government buries the bodies of migrants who drown at sea in unmarked graves across multiple graveyards.

At the Lampedusa Hotspot, where government officials register migrants entering Europe, Frank asked me to send a portrait to his family so they would know he arrived safely.

Ousmane, part of the Sant Joan de Déu refugee resettlement program, receives support for education, housing, healthcare, and employment.

Gerard is a founding member of the Worldwide Painted Lady Migration Project.

Organic farms and traditional hayfields, free from synthetic pesticides, provide habitats vital to the Painted Lady butterfly’s survival.

As drought scorches Europe, Painted Lady butterflies find blooming flowers in the moist air near melting glaciers.

Switzerland is building new dams to capture water from melting glaciers for drinking, irrigation, and hydroelectric power.

I followed butterflies to the green spaces where they paused—some of which were marked by human borders. At the Berlin Wall on a Sunday morning, I watched decorated young people, just out of all-night clubs, sitting in perfect order.

Painted Lady butterflies can live for five weeks, enduring long flights until their wings become too worn to continue.

As Norway's climate warms, Painted Lady butterflies migrate farther north, making the longest butterfly migration even longer.

While Jullanar’s mother tours the Lofoten Seafood Center, where she can work after resettling as a refugee, Jullanar inspects a dried monkfish in the playspace.

Following my friend’s children on a nature camp hike, the Italian countryside felt calm—until they found campfire ashes and painted themselves like butterflies.

As sunset approaches, Painted Lady butterflies often gather at the highest rocky points of the landscape, where they are likely to mate.

I visited the region near the Romania-Ukraine border, where some of my family is from. Only fields and a graveyard remain of our village. I didn’t know what to photograph until Timbo drove by.

Immigrants to Europe often send money home to support their families. This pool is part of a newly built house, funded by a son working in Paris.

Painted Lady butterflies have been migrating through these blooming fields for millions of years.

Each year, Painted Lady butterflies cross the Sahara and Arabian deserts, timing their migration to the brief bloom of wildflowers that follows seasonal rains.

Mohammad helped me to find Painted Lady butterflies in Wadi Rum, Jordan. After that, he began offering butterfly tours through his father Obeid's Bedouin Life Camp.

In 1930, entomologist C.B. Williams hypothesized that Painted Lady butterflies, commonly seen during European summers, migrate south to the Middle East and Africa. In 2024, scientists mapped this journey from Kenya to Norway, revealing the longest butterfly migration.