PRODUCER-AUTHOR-PHOTOGRAPHER
Thomas Wiewandt is an independent natural history media producer who has pursued an interdisciplinary career in science, art, ecotourism, filmmaking, and publishing. He has spent much of his career exploring and documenting life in the Sonoran Desert, owns Wild Horizons® Publishing, Inc., dba Wild Horizons Productions, and earned degrees from Marietta College (B.S), the University of Arizona (M.S.), and Cornell (PhD).
Thomas is no stranger to awards. His motion picture films for the BBC and the National Geographic Society captured an Emmy nomination in cinematography, a Gold Apple Award at the National Educational Film and Video Festival, and four Cine Golden Eagles. HIDDEN LIFE OF THE DESERT has served as the companion book to Tom’s independently produced film DESERT DREAMS: Celebrating Five Seasons in the Sonoran Desert, shown in seven film festivals and Winner in three of them. This popular film without narration has aired on national Public Television as a fund-raising program for the past seven years.
Tom’s first book––THE SOUTHWEST INSIDE OUT (2001, 2004, 2014)––was awarded four top regional and national honors. And in 2021, during the pandemic, he completed two major projects, both decades in the making––FOSSILS INSIDE OUT: A Global Fusion of Science, Art, & Culture (a Silver IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Winner); and SOUNDS OF THE SONORAN DESERT, a 2-CD set, with its premiere as a public listening experience on May 9, 2023 at Tucson’s historic Fox Theatre.
Never planning to “retire,” Tom lives in Tucson’s desert foothills and is an active member of the Authors Guild, the Independent Book Publishers Association, the American Society of Media Photographers, the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences, and the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.