WIRED published a piece on photographer Julia Bennett‘s new series, Into the Umbra, which captures microscopic under water specimens in beautiful images. Bennett was originally struck by how the creatures evoke traditional space and sci-fi imagery, even though they are from the ocean:

“They look like something constructed for a science fiction movie,” said Bennett, now a senior. “We were making drawings and recording numbers and doing all this science stuff, and I couldn’t get over how perfect and symmetrical and intricate they are. I thought, ‘Why doesn’t everyone want to look at these?’”

So began Bennett’s fascination with capturing the least charismatic—but most critical—of ocean creatures under a magnification 40-100 times their normal size.

“If you change the angle of the light in the microscope, that does amazing things,” she said. “The live samples naturally have these incredible colors and layers.”

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