Customer Reviews

View Finder: Mark Klett, Photography, and the Reinvention of Landscape

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VIEW FINDER is 309 pages long. The book under review gets FIVE STARS, for its goal of spotlighting an American photographer. But the contents of the book was disappointing, and I think what is inside deserves at most TWO STARS. The main thrust of the book is to document the photographer's day to day traveling activities.

Although the goal of spotlighting a successful landscape photographer who uses a large format camera is admirable, it is questionable if the day to day traveling activities of this particular artist is of enough interest to justify formal documentation in a book format. This sort of diaristic approach is appropriate for documenting the daily life of a celebrity, such as a lofty hero in the realm of sports, or a pop-singer having messianic qualities. In other words, I would not include Mark Klett in the same lofty-territory as that occupied by celebrities that are useful to society, such as Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, or pop-celebrities, such as Harrison Ford, Johnny Dep, Madonna, or Paul McCartney.

The title, VIEW FINDER, is a clever one. It has a double meaning, similar to the double meaning titles of A.D.Coleman's photography criticism books. For example, A.D.Coleman wrote a book called, "LIGHT READINGS." Light Readings, get it? Get it?

The cover of VIEW FINDER features an attractive collage of three photographs. As is common in many of Mark Klett's photos, one of them shows part of his body (a hand).
Klett's attractive technique of self-inclusion is also shown in a desert campground photo featuring his shadow (page 126).

VIEW FINDER concerns a re-photographic project where the goal was to re-photograph landscapes originally taken by J.K.Hillers, William Henry Jackson, and Timothy O'Sullivan, over 100 years ago.

Another goal was to take totally new photographs, e.g., with streaks of speeding autos or motorcycles, or with the photographer's shadow cast in the desert sand. We see a road sign peppered with bullet holes, where the sign reads DANGER ROCKETS MAY LAND IN THIS AREA DURING TESTS. We are provided with a description of a "station wagon of indeterminate make and age . . . its yellow body is spotted with rust and bullet holes." The spotted yellow station wagon is photographed and cleverly entitled "Cheetah." (Unfortunately, the photo is in black and white. It would have worked much better in color) (page 102 and 116). We see a photograph of a roadsign reading WONDER, located in a remote Nevada desert (page 110). We see an attractive photo of John Wesley Powell's book, open at a drawing of Horseshoe Curve, sitting on the ground before the real Horseshoe Curve, Utah, with Klett's hand on the book's page (page 259).

We see a photo of Klett's hat sitting on a precipice at The Grand Canyon (page 192). There is an attractive photo of 25 tourists watching a Golden Spike ceremony at Promentory Point, Utah (page 271). We are provided with a homey, attractive photo of a teacup perched on the roof of a car, with Teapot Rock in the background (page 281).

But then, there are photographs of trash (page 115), and more photographs of trash (page 164), and more trash (164), and still more trash (page 292), and a leaf stuck in a fence (page 133). By "trash" I mean actual trash. The trash pictures are not at all attractive.

There is some commentary on Klett's fund raising efforts: "Raising money for rephotography wasn't always an easy sell. The NEA panelists groused in 1977 that the proposed "then-and-now" project was nothing new . . . and that it was light on art. Still they granted enough funds . . . (page 139). Pages 248-251 contain interesting info on the harsh facts of photography economics, and we are provided with a number of reasons why photographic prints sell for under $1000 (this would not even cover expenses, in my opinion).

The photographs inside do the job of revealing the subject matter, but they are too small and of only moderate quality, and don't allow the viewer to immerse himself in the image, don't allow the viewer to find solace in the image. The main focus of the book is not really photography criticism at all, but to chronicle the daily life of Mr.Klett and his helpers as they motor across Nevada and Utah: "First, we had passed by the geothermal plant and found ourselves at an unmarked intersection in the dirt. We picked what seemed the most used road, and Mark drew an annotated map . . . "(page 11). To give another example, "Wandering up the short ridge to the kitchen to make coffee, I watch the sunlight as it works down Mt.Davidson and into town. Mark joins me, and together we gaze east at the floodwaters . . ." (page 218).

Mark Klett's book, YOSEMITE IN TIME (2005) is a splendid one, and it contains interesting manipulations of what otherwise might be traditional landscape photographs. YOSEMITE IN TIME, deserves FIVE STARS.

Kathleen Gauss's NEW AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY (1985) Los Angeles County Museum of Art. does a decent job at providing Mark Klett's best desert photographs. Gauss' book also provides an articulate explanation of Mr.Klett's photography. Ms.Gauss writes: "Klett demonstrates the contrast of time between the transitory picnic [an actual picnic] . . . and the epochal, geological age of the canyon . . . the ephemeral poised against a millenial landscape." Regarding an image of a U-Haul truck in front of a row of spires in Monument Valley, Ms.Gauss writes: "He [Klett] has . . . baldly used the truck as a device . . . to emphasize the striking disparity among the various elements . . . Klett manipulates the scale reversing his more customary illustration of the relationship between man and nature."

NEW AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY contains 14 reproduction of Klett's photographs, including: The Grand Canyon (1983), Checking the Road Map, Monument Valley (1982), and Car Passing Snake (1983). The quality of the images is quite good, and one can immerse oneself in the images and find solace in them. NEW AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY also contains sections devoted to each of a dozen other contemporary American photographers, including John Pfahl, the creator of ALTERED LANDSCAPES. ALTERED LANDSCAPES contains dozens of intriguing and inspiring color photographs (though the quality of the image quality in this book is only moderate).

I have been so pleased to purchase all three of the Mark Klett books that I wanted for such an amazing price. I was going to buy from B&N but their one book was more than half of the three books that I bought from the JUNGLE. Thanks Amazon and super fast free shipping as always.