My girlfriend was looking at Erik's work a few weeks ago on her laptop and pointed it out to me. I think the most recent were on the screen, and I later went back and checked more stuff out.
There's a definite niche for what he's doing with his fashion work. But from just looking at the images on a technical level, I can clearly see what he likes [think of the two photographers you compared him to], and what he wants to achieve. I don't think he's gotten it yet though.
My biggest pet peeve with his pictures would be that the post work done and the lighting [which could use some work] does the job for atmosphere and mood, but he ignores the main element in his image. I think Erik should focus on making the models more expressive. A lot of the pictures feature blank and emotionless expressions with moody images around them, which is kind of an unnecessary juxtoposition. It's basically telling me that Erik is just beginning his journey as a photographer. He's still gotta chisel himself out and work out the kinks. He definately has a lot of potential though.
On Juergen and Terry, there's got to be credit given where it's due. Terry has made a small empire off his work, and I know he can shoot like anyone else out there [studio, nice stuff] because he shot Aldo completely outside of his usual style, and it was good. Juergen is an artist first, and mainly does mainstream fashion for the money. Which is really nice if you think about it, because he doesn't have to sacrafice anything and still does it his way. For these two to be able to get to their level. there's definately a lot of work required.
Like it or not, one can safely say that they were in the right place at the right time and took advantage of what was then a stale and boring market. They brought in something new and it's changed the way things are being done.
Where will it all go though? Who knows. I think new media is going to take a stronger hold on fashion in the next ten years. We're going to see a lot more use of 3-D environments and objects, a lot more leaning towards video and dvd formats. With new technology come new possibilities. People are going to have to work around the growing lack of tradional photographic equipment. Some things are just too expensive and outdated, new formats, new money saving ways for advertisers to reach their audiences.
Most importantly, the generation of great fashion shooters is going to pass, and a new school of kids are going to slowly start taking over. To see the future of fashion photography, I'd be looking at all brand new photographers that are doing something unique, as this will probably influence the culture in the near future.