Mitch Dobrowner's Photos Capture Storms at Their Most Terrifying

By: Caitie Jones

Published: September 4,2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Regan, N.D.

'Rope Out', Regan, N.D., 2011 from 'Storms', photographs by Mitch Dobrowner (Aperture, 2013)

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Photographer Mitch Dobrowner, whose spectacular images of terrifying storm systems capture the fury of Mother Nature in black and white, has a book coming out this month.
Storms focuses on the phenomenon of storms and on the landscape tradition of the American West. The California-based photographer's works will also be shown at the Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles Sept. 7-Oct. 26.
Dobrowner, who has won more than a dozen major honors and was named Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards last year, began his career as a landscape photographer and says that even in those days he looked for the unusual weather conditions to give his images interest.
“I was always looking for big, stormy weather because I just found that the atmospheric conditions and the lighting—even how high the sun rose over the horizon—was the most interesting to me. When I was shooting in that type of weather, anything could happen.”
In 2009, Dowbrowner began chasing and photographing storms with professional storm chaser Roger Hill, and says what started as an experiment quickly became a lasting passion.“If we can chase a storm for a day from its formation to its death, that’s the most exciting for me,” Dobrowner said. “Each one is kind of like a little memory or a child to me.”
Despite the danger inherent in storm photography, Dobrowner insists he feels no fear during his outings with Hill.
“I don’t get scared, I get excited because this is so beautiful,” he says. “I’m in awe when I see these things. It’s so surreal to me; it’s like being on another planet. I get the chills when I’m standing in front of a storm like that.”
(MORE: Yosemite Fire Photos)
One of his most memorable outings involved a chase in Moorcroft, Wyo.
“We were just in a field in Moorcroft and we saw the storm coming over the hills and then it just turned into this monster hailstorm,” Dobrowner says. “I think I got off maybe half a dozen pictures at the time with golf ball size hail falling.”
In no time at all, the conditions changed and the hunters became the hunted.
“The storm started chasing us, so we tried to get out of its way.  We had our jackets up against the windows because we were pretty sure the windows were going to shatter.”
He says his biggest challenge is the lack of weather.
"It can be frustrating sitting for days in beautiful, sunny weather waiting for something to happen or form," Dobrowner said. "I get enough of that at home in Southern California.”
MORE: Jesse Summers' Landscape Photography: Jaw-Dropping Vistas

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'Fire and Water' was taken in May in Eastern Washington at Palouse Falls State Park. This is a composite of two panoramas taken an hour apart. (Jesse Summers)