Erik Hijweege: Capturing Nature's Majesty | From Supercell Storms to Endangered Species in Ice

Erik Hijweege (1963) is fascinated with  the overwhelming power of nature. He started chasing big weather and tornadoes in 2006. During his first years of stormchasing Hijweege chose an alter ego for this body of work in the making. Kevin Erskine a farmer from Valentine Nebraska was born. This resulted for Erskine (a.k.a Hijweege) in his first international solo show in New York and the Supercell book. 

Sequel to Supercell is his Sublime nature project. In this series he combines the forces of nature  with the insignificance of man. Towering motherships over small cities, strangling trees around ancient temples show the grandeur of nature and the vulnerability of mankind.

The multiple threats of our natural surroundings triggered Hijweege to start a second line in his work focussing on endangered species. Based on the Red List of the IUCN he photographed 23 endangered animals preserved in ice. Being a fragile subject matter Hijweege used the 19th century wetplate collodion process to capture these frozen animals on ambrotype. His Endangered series was exhibited at the Dutch Natural History Museum in Rotterdam raising awareness for this important matter. The Endangered book was published in 2014. 

Following his 19th century inspired longing for remote places and distant shores he travels the world working on his long-term Uncharted  and waterfalls projects .Capturing landscapes on tintype, he shows us the world as seen through the eyes of early explorers.