Honorable Mention
Tempest
DESCRIPTION
A stunningly photogenic tornado picks up red dust as it churns against a startlingly blue sky in rural Wray, Colorado, USA. The United States sees more tornadoes yearly than any other part of the planet; this one was later rated EF2 and, thankfully, injured nobody. AUTHOR
Tori Jane Ostberg is a hopelessly obsessed storm chaser and extreme weather photographer, in that order. Chasing down the meanest weather on the planet has simply always been what she wanted to do - it is her life’s dream, and now it is her life’s work. Every year, she spends several weeks living on the road in pursuit of untamed skies, driving tens of thousands of miles to go wherever the weather leads her throughout the North American great plains and Midwest. In the summer, she chases the uniquely beautiful (and vastly underrated) southwestern monsoon season across her home state of Arizona. Her photos are quite literally little pieces of her soul imprinted in pixels forever, beautiful little pieces of everything she’s ever wanted to do with herself, and everything she’s ever hoped for all rolled into extraordinary and at times extreme imagery. She hopes to share the incredible, sublime beauty of severe weather with the world as she sees it: as equal parts beautiful, humbling, and frightening, and as much a grand spectacle as a force to be respected and revered.