Books by Steve or Karen Strom

 

Observatories of the Southwest: A Guide for Curious Skywatchers
by Douglas Isbell and Stephen Strom, University of Arizona Press.

With its clear skies and low humidity, the southwestern United States is an astronomer's paradise where observatories like Kitt Peak have redefined the art of skywatching. The region is unique in its loose federation of like-minded research outposts and in the quantity and diversity of its observatories - places captured in this unique guidebook.

Douglas Isbell and Stephen Strom, both intimately involved in southwestern astronomy, have written a practical guide to the major observatories of the region for those eager to learn what modern telescopes are doing, to understand the role each of these often quirky places has played in advancing our understanding of the cosmos, and hopefully to visit and see the tools of the astronomer up close. For each observatory, the authors describe its history, highlights of its contributions to astronomy - with an emphasis on recent results - and information for visitors. Also included are wide-ranging interviews with astronomers closely associated with each site.

Observatories covered range from McDonald in Texas to Palomar in California, with significant outposts in between: Arizona's Kitt Peak National Observatory southwest of Tucson, the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, and the Whipple Observatory outside Amado; and New Mexico's Very Large Array near Socorro and Sacramento Peak close to Sunspot. In addition to describing these established institutions, they also take a look ahead to the most powerful ground-based telescope in the world just beginning to operate at full power on Mount Graham in Safford, Arizona.

With more than three dozen illustrations, the book is accessible to amateur astronomers, tourists, students, and teachers - anyone fascinated with the contributions that astronomy has made to deepening our understanding of humanity's place in the universe, whether exploring the solar system from Lowell Observatory or studying the birth of stars using the army of giant radio telescopes at the Very Large Array. This book aims to inspire visits to these sites by illuminating the major scientific questions being pursued every clear night beneath the dark skies of the Southwest and the amazing machinery that makes these pursuits possible.

 

Earth Forms
Photographs by Stephen Strom, Essays by Gregory McNamee & Albert Stewart, Dewi Lewis Publishing.

Stephen Strom has photographed in the southwestern desert lands of the United States for more than 20 years and this book brings together, for the first time, a selection of his most powerful and memorable images.

Strom brings to this landscape the sensibilities of an astronomer who has lived in the desert for almost two decades. His photographs capture a land shaped both by the millennial forces of prehistory and also by yesterday's cloudburst. His images have the power to compress vast desert spaces in an illusion of intimacy and comprehension, presenting undulations of colour and form which appear reimagined in a light that at once penetrates and sculpts.

Published in 2009, the book Earth Forms, with essays by Gregory McNamee and Albert Stewart, is the first fine art quality monograph of Stephen's photographs. To assure images of the highest quality, Stephen was present at EBS in Verona, Italy when the final proofs were made. He and Dewi Lewis, the publisher, certified the adjustments made before each page was printed.

Visit the website for the book!

 

Otero Mesa: Preserving America's Wildest Grassland
by Gregory McNamee, Foreword by Bill Richardson, Photographs by Stephen Strom & Stephen Capra, 2008, University of New Mexico Press.

Full-color images by renowned photographers Stephen Strom and Stephen Capra unite with text by prizewinning nature and geography writer Gregory McNamee to document the subtle landscape of 1.2 million acres of remote Chihuahuan Desert grassland in southern New Mexico. Home to many species of wildlife and native plants, Otero Mesa is a place of extraordinary beauty and ecological significance faced with the increasing threat of oil and gas development that has plagued the Rocky Mountain West.

"It is a strange and empty place, a place whose contours suggest that those who do not know it are best to leave it alone, as those who do know it will do in all events. And, as with all strange and empty places in this increasingly crowded, increasingly monocultural world, Otero Mesa is an important island in our geography of hope, a place that warrants concern and protection. Rightly, for it is very much under threat." -- Gregory McNamee in Otero Mesa

 

Sticks And Stones: An Alphabet Book For The 21^st Century
by Karen M. Strom, 2006, BookSurge.com.

"Don't be fooled by your cursory first impression of this "Alphabet Book for the 21^st Century". Although it is organized by the presentation style of a children's ABC book, there is much more here than initially meets the eye. It uses the English alphabet and images of the borderland of southern Arizona as an entry into the intersection of the natural world and its human inhabitants. At this intersection, it offers the reader an opportunity to make connections in a mode that is both as old as primitive alphabets shaped by hand with sticks and stones and as new as 21^st century alphabets that inhabit our pervasive computers, where bits and bytes fly by at unimaginable rates. If you let both approaches to this mode of processing information work in your mind simultaneously, you will find the imagery in the book taking you places where currents cross and fresh insights arise."
Suzan Edwards

 

Tséyi' / Deep in the Rock: Reflections on Canyon de Chelly (Sun Tracks)
by Laura Tohe, Stephen Strom, photographer, 2005, Univ. Arizona Press.

To visitors it is Canyon de Chelly, a scenic wonder of the Southwest whose vistas reward travelers willing to venture off the beaten track. But to the DinŽ, it is Tséyi', "the place deep in the rock," a site that many have long called home. Now from deep in the heart of the Diné homeland comes an extraordinary book, a sensitive merging of words and images that reflects the sublime spirit of Canyon de Chelly. Diné poet Laura Tohe draws deeply on her heritage to create lyrical writings that are rooted in the canyon but universal in spirit, while photographer Stephen Strom captures images that reveal the very soul of this ancient place. Tohe's words take readers on a journey from the canyon rim down sheer sandstone walls to its rich bottomlands; from the memory of Kit Carson's rifle shots and the forced march of the Navajo people to the longings of modern lovers. Her poems view the land through Diné eyes, blending history, tradition, and personal reflection while remaining grounded in Strom's delicate yet striking images. These photographs are not typical of most southwestern landscapes. Strom's eye for the subtleties and mysticism of the canyon creates powerful images that linger in the mind long after the pages are turned, compelling us to look at the earth in new ways. Tséyi' / Deep in the Rock is a unique evocation of Canyon de Chelly and the people whose lives and spirits are connected to it. It is a collaboration that conjures the power of stories and images, inviting us to enter a world of harmony and be touched by its singularly haunting beauty.

 

Sonoita Plain: Views from a Southwestern Grassland
by Jane H. Bock, Carl Bock, Stephen Strom, photographer, 2005, Univ. Arizona Press.

"In an era when advocates for nature sometimes do convincing imitations of the most smug and self-righteous religious believers, condemning sin in others and ignoring it in themselves, the Bocks and Strom are a refreshing exception. . . . [They] show us how to be both Naturalist and Humanist, warning us, instructing us, amusing us, and raising our spirits at the same time."
Patricia Nelson Limerick, author of Something in the Soil

"Any full portrait of a society--and the Sonoita Plain is a society: of lands, plants, skies, creatures (including humans)-- must be artful, lyrical, factual, historical, mythical, insightful and inspiring. This is a tremendous order--and it's all here in this beautiful marriage of text and photographs."
Joy Harjo, author of How We Became Human and Secrets from the Center of the World

 

Secrets from the Center of the World (Sun Tracks, Vol 17) (Sun Tracks, Vol 17)
by Joy Harjo, Stephen Strom, photographer, 1989, Univ. Arizona Press.

"Joy Harjo is a multi-talented artist - poetry and music (with Poetic Justice) available. Here she has paired her words to Stephen Strom's photographs. His photographs of landscapes have an unusual and very effective use of colors . . . many reminding me of the softness of watercolor or pastels."
M. J. Smith