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Don Strel Photo Exhibit and Reception at the Santa Fe Public Library

Contributed by Pat Hodapp, Director of the Santa Fe Public Library

Southwestern landscape photographs by Don Strel will be on exhibit at Santa Fe’s downtown Public Library, 145 Washington Ave., during the month of December. Santa Fe Public Library will be celebrating on Tuesday, December 5th from 5 to 6:30 p.m. with a small cookies and chocolate reception and welcome you to stop by to see the photographs and say hi to Don. Don’s photography book, Tony Hillerman’s Landscape, On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn  (created with Anne Hillerman) will be available at the library that night only. The show will be on display upstairs in the library’s Satin/Reichman Memorial Art Gallery until the end of the December.

About the Artist

Don Strel has been taking pictures for more than 60 years. His photographs have been published in numerous books, newspapers and magazines. Before becoming a full-time photographer, Don taught art and design at San Francisco State and Northern Illinois University and operated art and adventure programs in Colorado through the Chicago Arts Institute.  He came to Santa Fe to work as the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico. He left the museum to start his own business, Southwest Assignments and to focus more on his own creative work. For the next 20 years, Don did photography and public relations for clients ranging from Ski Santa Fe to the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos.

He and his wife, author Anne Hillerman, created three books together: Santa Fe Flavors, Gardens of Santa Fe, and Tony Hillerman’s Landscape: On the Raod with Chee and Leaphorn. Many of the photos featured in this exhibition were published in Tony Hillerman’s Landscape, a non-fiction book which took readers to the Navajo reservation as seen through the eyes of Hillerman’s detectives.

Don has lived in Santa Fe since 1972.