This photographer chases the Midwest’s most dramatic storms. Here are some of his favorite shots.
Lightning strikes over Stamford, Nebraska. June 21, 2017. (Eric Meola/)Eric Meola started chasing storms with his camera in 1977, almost by chance. He was traveling out West with Bruce Springsteen, photographing the classic rock artist for his album, “The Promise.” While shooting film of Springsteen driving on the dusty roads, the skies darkened and filled with cumulonimbus clouds, then rain, then lightning. Meola didn’t put his camera away.Over the next four decades, the New York-based photographer would go back to the American plains year after year, tagging along with more expert storm chasers to document those fleeting moments when weather transforms into something “spiritual and zionistic.” “In this incredible chessboard of a landscape where everything is flat, peaceful, remote, beautiful, and pastoral—it goes from idyllic to Armageddon in so little time,” Meola says. “The sky turns pitch black, and it’s as if it’s the end of the world.”On the road...