PHOTOGRAPHS
Klett, Mark
U.S. (1952 - )
Untitled
1978
Chromogenic color print
12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm) image size; 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm) sheet size
Monsen Study Collection of Photography, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen
FA 89.30

This very early image is not typical of the work for which Mark Klett is now known. A formal study of color, shape, and light, it was produced in a series where Klett experimented with the color effects of a flash and ambient light. This work was specifically influenced by various subjects from the streets of Rochester, NY, and Ketchum, ID, and by Klett’s mentor, Michael Bishop.

Born in Albany, New York in 1952, Mark Klett was originally educated in geology, receiving his B. S. from St. Lawrence University, and then turn to the study of photography. In 1977 Klett was elected chief photographer in the Rephotographic Survey project, a program funded by Polaroid, that sent contemporary photographers to re-photograph sites recorded by 19th-century photographers who had documented the West. The four young photographers of the survey and one historian retraced the footsteps of Timothy O’Sullivan, Eadweard Muybridge, Carleton Watkins, A. J. Russell, and William Henry Jackson. -- Label copy for 150 Works of Art, October 1, 2005 to February 26, 2006.