Camille Seaman

American photographer Camille Seaman hasn’t just got a great eye, but nerves of steel to boot. Known for her magnificent images of icebergs, Seaman decided to switch gears and try her luck at storm chasing. For her series The Big Cloud she spent her time chasing severe weather up and down the American Midwest, capturing breath-taking and awe-inspiring supercells as they sweep across the middle of the country.

“Clouds are a beautiful metaphor. They are so ethereal; they cannot be touched but you can see them,” Seaman says. “You can watch them as they form from ‘nothing’ and grow and rage and boom and sparkle. They rain or snow or blow and nourish and destroy; they create and build; they damage and flood. They move resources from one place to another.”

There is something utterly humbling about watching storm clouds churn about in the sky above. Clouds are the largest natural formation we can perceive as having dynamic movement. Like tidal waves in the sky, these massive formations crash into each other, rise to staggering heights, unleash torrents of rain, and bolts of blinding lightning. All of this violence, occurring just a few thousand feet above our heads, can be completely arresting and serenely beautiful when observed from a distance. This constantly shifting tropospheric struggle can yield such unique textures and vibrant colors that not even the most masterful painter could reproduce them.

[via Aether Journal]