Seeing Time

"Focused largely on the American West, Klett's photographs respond to historic images and explore time, change, and perception through the technology of photographic media. This retrospective pulls together all of Mark Klett's major themes and puts them in context through an exhaustive interview with curator Anne Tucker, who takes a thematic rather than chronological look at Klett's issues and influences: a career-long commitment to the American Southwest; his early decision to take a conceptual rather than documentary approach to shaping projects; his choice of collaborators from disciplines other than photography who also share his interest in new perceptions of the American West; the evolution of his use of photographic craft relative to his idea of openness to change; Klett's evolving views of "place," "time," and "change," and his questioning of the terms "landscape" and "wilderness" as they relate to how deserts have been perceived in history; his questioning of the possibility or desirability of an "objective" photographer; his rejection of linear time and an interest in the relationship between time and change; and the influence of his Japanese residency. An essay by the Center for Creative Photography's Chief Curator Becky Senf examines Klett's preference for collaborative work, and an essay by Nelson-Atkins Senior Curator of Photography Keith Davis addresses the origins and historical context of Klett's work"--