Strom has spent his professional career as an astronomer, holding such appointments as Lecturer in Astronomy at Harvard; Astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; Chairman of the Five College Astronomy Department and in 1998 Strom returned to Tucson served as Associate Director of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory where he worked until he retired in May, 2007.

Strom began photographing in1978. His work, largely interpretations of landscapes, has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and is held in several permanent collections. His photographs complement poems and essays in three books published by the University of Arizona Press: Secrets from the Center of the World, a collaboration with Muscogee poet Joy Harjo, Sonoita Plain: Views from a Southwester Grassland, a collaboration with ecologists Jane and Carl Bock, and Tseyi (Deep in the Rock): Reflections on Canyon de Chelly, co-authored with Navajo poet Laura Tohe. Most recently, his work appeared in Otero Mesa: Preserving America’s Wildest Grassland (University of New Mexico Press).