Kevin Erskine

At the age of twelve, Kevin Erskine (born 1956) witnessed his first big storm: a category four tornado with wind speeds of over 207 miles per hour that raged through the center of his hometown of Hoskins, Nebraska. Fascinated and inspired by this immense force of nature, Erskine began taking his first photographs with his father’s camera. Kevin Erskine: Supercell collects 120 of his most stunning large-format portraits of supercells: the least common, often isolated and frequently most severe of all thunderstorms. The photographs depict enormous cloud masses in continually shifting formations: encroaching thunderstorms and pitching tornados create a rich palette that ranges from luminescent periwinkle grandeur to an almost apocalyptic darkness swallowing a red evening sun. In these visions of flat, threatened landscapes under collapsing atmospheres, Erskine masterfully demonstrates the ambivalence between the terrifying force of nature and its stunning beauty.