Kim Stringfellow

Kim Stringfellow is an artist and educator residing in Joshua Tree, California. Her work bridges cultural geography, environmental journalism, public practice and experimental documentary into creative, socially engaged transmedia experiences. She is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow in Photography and the 2012 recipient of the Theo Westenberger Award for Artistic Excellence. Stringfellow is an Associate Professor in School of Art + Design at San Diego State University. She is the author of two books, "Greetings from the Salton Sea: Folly and Intervention in the Southern California Landscape, 1905–2005" and "Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape, 1938–2008" both published by the Center for American Places.

Website: www.kimstringfellow.com/

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A view of the Cadiz and Fenner Valleys photographed by Kim Stringfellow from the Cadiz Summit off historic Route 66 in the Mojave Trails National Monument. | Kim Stringfellow

A 'Chinatown'-Worthy Water Conspiracy Unfolds in the Mojave

Cadiz Inc.’s 34,000-acre property is located just south of the old Santa Fe railroad line between one of the last undeveloped stretches of historic Route 66 in the middle of a contentious public-private water grab. This is how it's all playing out.

Lancaster’s California State Prison located between 50th and 60th Street West and Avenue J has confirmed cases of valley fever within its all-male prison population. | Kim Stringfellow © 2017

The Shifting Demographics of Antelope Valley — And Development's Consequences

The landscape of the Antelope Valley has undergone a transformation due to exponential growth and development over the last 40 years. But as the region’s landscape is modified and its demographics shift, the land is revealing something sinister.

Rancho de la Luna neon sign | Kim Stringfellow

Rock's Secret Musical Hideaway

This home recording studio in the desert has incubated a mesmerizing array of eclectic sounds — from Daniel Lanois to Victoria Williams to Queens of the Stone Age — and it began with a simple sign off Highway 62 that said ‘THREE HOUSES FOR RENT.'

The 41st ROCstock, Lucerne Valley, CA (2015) | Kim Stringfellow

Peace, Love and Rockets: Amateur Rocketry in the Mojave

The Mojave Desert is widely known as a military and aerospace testing site, but alongside them are amateur rocketeers who explore near space on their own time and dime.

Adelanto councilman John "Bug" Woodard pictured with a local grower's "mother trees" that will be later cloned for large-scale marijuana cultivation. (featured)

How a Struggling Desert Town Turned to Pot Cultivation to Pull Itself Out of Poverty

Branded in the past for having “more prisons than supermarkets,” Adelanto’s city leaders have turned to commercial cannabis cultivation to pull the city out of insolvency.

The Kokoweef beacon at Mountain Pass on I-15 that continues to lure tourists and treasure seekers to the famed mine. | Photo: Kim Stringfellow.

Still Searching for the Mojave’s Lost River of Gold

The Kokoweef legend peddling E.P. Dorr’s Lost River of Gold has mesmerized Mojave Desert treasure seekers for over 80 years now, but is it geologically possible?

Pauline Esteves, Timbisha Shoshone elder and activist

How the Timbisha Shoshone Got Their Land Back

It is no secret that many Native Americans were displaced from ancestral lands during the founding of some of America’s national parks. Death Valley National Park is no exception.

Lenny Steinberg’s Architectural Design for the Ages

Her professional design career began in the early 1960s after joining forces with like-minded innovator Sarah Binder. Lenny Steinberg’s trendsetting architectural practice spans over 50 years.

Artist Monty Brannigan is a resident of Darwin, California

Darwin Dreamin’

Established in 1877 near Death Valley, the tiny desert mining outpost of Darwin is home to a group of eclectic artists.

Rare borax crystal at the Twenty Mule Team Museum

Borax: The Magic Crystal

Gold and silver lured many a prospector out to the Mojave Desert, but the mineral compound that surprisingly proved most financially lucrative for a handful of them is common borax.