Mark Klett (born 9 September 1952) is an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

. His work is included in the collections of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

, the

Museum of Fine Arts Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York.

Life

Klett was born in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

. After graduating from St. Lawrence University with a B.S. in

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

in 1974, he worked as a photographer with the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and ...

. In 1977, he completed the MFA program at

Visual Studies Workshop Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) is a non-profit group dedicated to art education based in Rochester, New York, in the Neighborhood of the Arts. VSW supports makers and interpreters of images through education, publications, exhibitions, and collect ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

studying with

Nathan Lyons Nathan Lyons (January 10, 1930 – August 31, 2016) was an American photographer, curator, and educator. He exhibited his photographs from 1956 onwards, produced books of his own and edited those of others. Lyons was also a curator of photography ...

. He is a Regents Professor and teaches photography at Arizona State University.

Work

Klett's photographic work focuses on the western landscape and man’s interaction with it. In particular, his photographs respond to historic images and his projects explore relationships between time, change and perception. He is particularly known for his

rephotography Rephotography is the act of repeat photography of the same site, with a time lag between the two images; a diachronic, "then and now" view of a particular area. Some are casual, usually taken from the same view point but without regard to seas ...

projects, recently with collaborator Byron Wolfe, which included western landscapes, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Glenn Canyon.

Publications

*''Second View: The Rephotographic Survey Project.'' With Ellen Manchester and JoAnn Verburg, University of New Mexico Press, 1984. *''Traces of Eden: Travels in the Desert Southwest.'' David R. Godine, 1986. *''Headlands: the Marin Coast at the Golden Gate.'' With Miles De Coster, Mike Mandel,Paul Metcalf, and Larry Sultan, University of New Mexico Press, 1989. *''One City/Two Visions.'' Bedford Arts Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 1990. *''Photographing Oklahoma. 1889-1991.'' Oklahoma City Art Museum, 1991. *''Revealing Territory.'' University of New Mexico Press, 1992. *''Capitol View: A New Panorama of Washington DC.'' With Merry Foresta, Smithsonian Institution and Book Studios, 1994. *''Desert Legends: Restoring the Sonoran Borderlands.'' With Gary Paul Nabhan, Henry Holt, 1994. *''The Black Rock Desert.'' With Bill Fox, University of Arizona Press, 2002. . *''Third Views, Second Sights, A Rephotographic Survey of the American West.'' Museum of New Mexico Press, 2004. With Byron Wolfe. . *''Yosemite in Time: Ice Ages, Tree Clocks, Ghost Rivers.'' With

Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) is an American writer. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Early life and education Solnit was born in 1961 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to a Jewish fa ...

and Byron Wolfe, Trinity University Press, 2005. . *''After the Ruins: Rephotographing the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.'' University of California Press, 2005. . *''Mark Klett: Saguaros by Gregory McNamee and Mark Klett.'' Radius Books, 2007. . *''The Half Life of History'', with William Fox. Radius Books, 2011. *''Reconstructing the View, the Grand Canyon Photographs of Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe'', with Byron Wolfe, Rebecca A. Senf, Stephen J. Pyne. University of California Press, 2012. *''Camino del Diablo'', Radius Books, 2017. With

Raphael Pumpelly Raphael Pumpelly (September 8, 1837 – August 10, 1923) was an American geologist and explorer. Biography Early life and ancestors He was born on September 8, 1837, in Owego, New York, into a family with deep New England roots that trace back ...

*''Drowned River: The Death and Rebirth of Glen Canyon on the Colorado'', with

and Byron Wolfe. Radius Books, 2018. *''Seeing Time: Forty Years of Photographs'', Anne Wilkes Tucker, Keith E. Davis, Rebecca A. Senf. University of Texas Press, 2020.

Awards

*1979: Emerging Artist Fellowship for the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

*1982: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship *1984: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship *1993: Photographer of the Year from Friends of Photography *Japan/U.S. Creative Artist Fellowship *2001: Regents' Professor,

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

*2004:

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

Collections

Klett's work is held in the following permanent collections: *

, New York: 33 prints (as of 26 September 2021) *

References

External links

*
The collaborative works of Mark Klett and Byron WolfeCollection of Mark Klett photos at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klett, Mark 1952 births Living people American photographers United States Geological Survey personnel St. Lawrence University alumni Artists from Albany, New York Arizona State University faculty Scientists from New York (state) Visual Studies Workshop alumni