In 1981, he received a Ferguson Award from the
Friends of Photography. Klett used the award
money to travel and work in Nepal. In 1986, he
worked with the artist Linda Connor to publish a
portfolio entitled Nepal. Klett’s gelatin silver
prints, most measuring 1620 inches, were print-
ed to show the development marks left by the
Polaroid film—a reference to the wet-plate nega-
tives made during the nineteenth century, and a
conscious nod to the photographers whose work
he studied so intently. After returning from Nepal,
Klett accepted a position with the Photography
Collaborative Facility at Arizona State University
(ASU) in Tempe, Arizona. It was in the desert
southwest that he began to explore the land as a
resident. This deeper identification with the desert
helped solidify his understanding of the desert’s
ecosystem, seasons, light, and cultures. This is
clearly seen in photographs where he captures the
drought of cacti, the sprawl of humanity, or the
blinding light of midday. In images such asCheck-
ing the Road Map, Crossing into Arizona, Monu-
ment Valley, 6/22/82, we see the momentary pause
of new residents who seem less concerned with their
present location than they are with their ultimate
destination. This kind of experience is exactly what
Klett focuses on regarding life in the twentieth-
century West. Klett writes: ‘‘The longer I work,
the more important it is to me to make photo-
graphs that tell my story as a participant, and not
just an observer of the land.’’
Within the history of landscape photography,
Mark Klett’s photographs are often noted for the
many ways in which they challenge a long-standing
artistic tradition. His unconventional practices
within the field of photography include the choice
to print on matte surface paper, the inclusion of an
irregular border from the Polaroid negative, and his
addition of text in the finished photograph. Further,
he has defied the landscape tradition of utilizing a
full tonal range by photographing during the brilli-
ant light of midday, yielding a palette of middle
grays seldom seen in the work of his contempor-
aries. Klett’s photographs question the assumption
that a landscape must contain drama to achieve
aesthetic success. His titles, often witty or descrip-
tive, are written directly on the face of each print in
his signature silver ink, making his work instantly
recognizable and emphasizing the photograph’s
presence as an object and his role in its creation.
Klett consistently includes the date on which the
photograph was taken as an integral component of
his title. This serves to remind the viewer that a
photograph exists within the larger context of
human history, and that it too has a history unto
itself. Titles such asFallen Cactus, New Golf Course,
Pinnacle Peak, Arizona, 3/4/84suggest a moment in
time when the ‘‘permanence’’ of a golf course was
first given life, ironically, through the death of an
iconic desert plant. Klett’s first monographTraces
of Eden: Travels in the Desert Southwest(1986)
appears as an early example of his working style
and demonstrates his fluidity between the disparate
media of black and white and color.
In the 1990s, Klett completed a series of repho-
tographic projects, albeit smaller than the original
RSP. In 1990, he created a 13 panel panorama of
San Francisco that was originally photographed in
1878 by Edweard Muybridge. The two works were
published back to back as a nine-foot-long accor-
dion bookOne City/Two Visions: San Francisco
Panoramas, 1878 and 1890(1990). Working with a
similar project in 1991, Klett made a series of
photographs documenting the changes in and
around Oklahoma City since 1889. This work, pub-
lished as Photographing Oklahoma: 1889–1991
(1991), contains archival photographs made during
the nineteenth century that are then juxtaposed
with his own work. In 1992, he began a new body
of rephotographic work in Washington, D.C. The
project resulted in the publication ofCapitol View,
A New Panorama of Washington, D.C.(1994).
Throughout Mark Klett’s career he has used
both color and black-and-white film. Much of his
color work from the 1980s and early 1990s was
printed with the dye transfer process, creating a
print known for its rich, saturated palette, and
archival longevity. After the disappearance of dye
transfer materials in 1994, Klett began to explore
the emergence of computer technology to produce
both color and black-and-white work. Working
with digital cameras as well as digital output to
explore this technology, his work has remained on
the leading edge of current technology. In 1997, he
launched a website containing the work of a long
term project entitledThird View. In the Third View
project he has utilized the assistance of graduate
students to document many of the sites that were
the subject of the original RSP photographers.
Field diaries, video, and sound are used to create
a dynamic addition to the photographs in this new
series. The website is found atwww.thirdview.org/.
Throughout his career, he has made use of
images for commercial purposes as well as aesthetic
ones. Mark Klett’s photographs can be found in
publications such asConde ́Nast Traveler,West-
ways, Harpers, and Outside magazine among
others. Commercial work has helped to maintain
his status in the photographic community in the
United States and abroad. His photographs areKLETT, MARK