Stromsten, Amy. Homes on Wheels by Michael Aaron Rockland with photographs by Amy Stromsten.

Rutgers University Press, 1980. [Manufactured, creative, bizarre, homemade, wide variety of mobile homes, recreational vehicles, hippie dwellings, etc. At time of publication, Amy Stromsten was teaching photography in the Rutgers University Art Department.] Fine in hardcover with near fine dust jacket that has one short closed tear on verso.  

Amy Stromsten is an American fine art and documentary photographer, author, and educator whose work examines American subcultures, built environments, and social landscapes. During her career, which included teaching photography in the Art Department at Rutgers University, Stromsten pursued projects that balanced social observation with visual documentary methods. She is particularly well known for her photographic collaboration on the landmark cultural study Homes on Wheels (1980, with Michael Aaron Rockland), which documented the diverse and unconventional world of mobile living, recreational vehicles, and custom DIY housing. Stromsten also produced photographic portraiture and social documentation projects—such as her work for Recovery (1982, published by the Journal of Studies on Alcohol)—as well as portraits of notable cultural figures, including Ansel Adams. Recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowship, her straightforward visual approach focuses on capturing authentic cultural expressions, textures, and the relationship between people and their living environments.

Homes on Wheels is an engaging cultural study that explores a uniquely American fascination with mobile living. Combining a comprehensive written text with documentary photographs, the book examines the wide variety of ways people transform vehicles into personal habitats.

Key Elements of the Work

• The Visual Documentation: The book is illustrated with numerous documentary photographs that capture the creative diversity of mobile architecture. These images provide a vivid visual record of the physical structures and the personal touches added by their owners, capturing everything from mass-produced designs to entirely custom creations.

• The Spectrum of Mobile Homes: The study covers a broad and colorful range of nomadic housing. It catalogs traditional trailers and recreational vehicles (RVs) alongside highly personalized dwellings, homemade campers, bizarre custom builds, and creatively manufactured mobile spaces.

• The Cultural Context: The text delves into the sociological motivations behind this lifestyle, exploring themes of freedom, individualism, and the desire to escape conventional domestic life, highlighting a distinct era of artistic and alternative housing experimentation.

Narrative Intent

The work functions as a thoughtful and witty celebration of ingenuity and nomadism. By documenting both the mainstream and the highly eccentric subcultures of mobile living, the publication frames these "homes on wheels" not merely as vehicles or affordable housing, but as deeply expressive, architectural extensions of the human desire for independence and self-expression.