Mark Klett (born 9 September 1952) is an American photographer. [1] [2] [3] [4] His work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, [5] the Museum of Fine Arts Houston [6] and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. [7]
Klett was born in Albany, New York. [8] After graduating from St. Lawrence University with a B.S. in Geology in 1974, he worked as a photographer with the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1977, he completed the MFA program at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York studying with Nathan Lyons. [9]
He is a Regents Professor and teaches photography at Arizona State University.
Klett's photographic work focuses on the western landscape and man’s interaction with it. [10] In particular, his photographs respond to historic images and his projects explore relationships between time, change and perception. [11] This interest has driven his rephotography projects, some in collaboration Byron Wolfe, which included western landscapes, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Glenn Canyon. [12] [13]
With cultural geographer William L. Fox [14] he traveled in 2023 and 2024 to the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), in the mid Pacific to document the legacy of nuclear testing after WWII, exacerbated by rising sea levels caused by climate change. Their collaboration resulted in The Half Life of History (2011), and Remember the Future. Nuclear Testing, Rising Seas, and The Marshall Islands (2026). [15]
Klett's work is held in the following permanent collections:
American Mark Klett is among the most accomplished landscape photographers in the ranks of twentieth century American....