Fascinating and breathtaking large-format photographs of severe weather
Nebraskan photographer Kevin Erskine captures epic doings in the
skies over the Great Plains, where layers of cool and warm, dry and
humid air clash to create tornadoes, lightning, and, if conditions
are right, an especially combustible tempest called the supercell -
a massive swirling thunderstorm whose powerful updrafts often
precede twisters.
A longtime "storm chaser," he has produced a catalogue of
atmospheric sculptures whose monikers - wall cloud, mammatus,
inflow band, mothership - evoke, as do the images themselves, both
the primal and the futuristic.
Of course, the imminent doom isn't merely figurative, as the
volume's very last photo makes clear: Spread over two pages are the
splintered, gnarled remains of homes and trees where a tornado
touched down in Greensburg, Kansas, in 2007.--Alberto Mobilo
"Bookforum"
To illustrate Nate Silver's recent article on the state of weather
forecasting, we turned to the work of the storm photographer Kevin
Erskine, whose haunting pictures of atmospheric disturbances are
the subject of his book "Supercell," which came out last year.
"Erskine" is the professional pseudonym used by Erik Hijweege, a
Dutch photographer who was inspired to combine his longstanding
interests in storms and landscape photography when he visited the
United States seven years ago and met the meteorologist and
well-known storm chaser Tim Marshall.
Hijweege, known for his portraiture and commercial work in the
Netherlands, decided he needed an alter ego when he was escaping
from his everyday life and pursuing extreme weather, so he came up
with "Kevin Erskine." In his mind, Erskine is farmer -- someone
close to nature -- from Valentine, Neb., a town Hijweege fell in
love with on one of his trips through what's known as Tornado
Alley.--Marvin Orellana "The New York Times Magazine"
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