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Art professor wins governor’s award


June 13, 2008

Mark Klett, Regents’ Professor of Photography in the ASU Herberger College School of Art, has received the 2008 Governor’s Arts Award as a living artist who has made a significant contribution to the arts in Arizona through his photographs of the American West.

Klett was selected for the award by the Arizona Commission on the Arts and Arizona Citizens for the Arts upon nomination of Marilu Knode, associate director of Future Arts Research (F.A.R.). Klett was among five individuals and arts organizations to receive the prestigious awards.

“I’m extremely honored to be recognized by the arts community in Arizona,” Klett says. “Artists depend on their communities for support, and Arizona has been a great place to live, create and teach. I hope that my work can contribute to our understanding and appreciation of the state’s incredible mix of landscapes and cultures.”

Klett, who is trained as a geologist, photographs the intersection of culture, landscapes and time. He established his artistic perspective on the American West landscape as the chief photographer for the Rephotographic Survey Project (1977-1979), which re-photographed Western sites first captured by surveyors in the late 1800s. Since then, Klett has written 13 books, including his most recent works, “Saguaros,” “After the Ruins,” “Yosemite in Time” and “Third Views, Second Sights.”

Klett has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Buhl Foundation and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission. His work is exhibited, published and collected nationally and internationally.

Laura Toussaint-Newkirk, laura.toussaint@asu.edu
(480) 965-8796
Herberger College of the Arts