Stephen Strom

Stephen Strom is the author of the book Earth Forms, with essays by Gregory McNamee and Albert Stewart. Mr. Strom has photographed in the southwestern desert lands of the United States for more than 20 years. 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 penetrates and sculpts.

Stephen Strom has spent his professional career as an astronomer. He graduated from Harvard College in 1962. In 1964 he received his Masters and Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University. From 1964-68 he held appointments as Lecturer in Astronomy at Harvard and Astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He then moved to the State University of New York at Stony Brook and served for 4 years as Coordinator of Astronomy and Astrophysics. In 1972 he accepted an appointment at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, AZ, where he served as Chair of the Galactic and Extragalactic program. The following 15 years were spent at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA; from 1984-1997 he served as Chairman of the Five College Astronomy Department. In 1998 Strom returned to Tucson as a member of the scientific staff at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory where he carries out research directed at understanding the formation of stars and planetary systems, and serves as Associate Director for Science and Project Scientist for the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope Project.

For more information please visit Mr. Strom's website by clicking HERE.