Mark Klett: Artist shows new views from the top of Tempe


View of downtown Tempe in 1908, 2008 and 2022

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in ASU Thrive’s special photography issue, celebrating a day in the life of inspiring people across the ASU community. 

Hohokam people have cherished the high point now known as Hayden Butte for generations. Also known as “A” Mountain, the vantage point has been a recurring spot for artist Mark Klett, a Regents Professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and a Distinguished Global Futures Scholar at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. Sourcing a historical image as a reference point, he has made new photos to capture the view in progressive works. 

Klett is a founder of the Rephotographic Survey Project, and has worked on a several other rephotography projects in the past three decades, including the Third View, Yosemite in Time, After the Ruins (San Francisco) and Reconstructing the View (Grand Canyon). Before turning to photography he worked as a geologist. This past May, he retired from ASU after 40 years to pursue his art full-time.

Partial panoramic view of downtown Tempe in 1908

View of downtown Tempe in 1908

Photo courtesy Library of Congress

 

Partial panoramic view of downtown Tempe

Partial panoramic view of downtown Tempe

A growing campus

1. Sun Devil Stadium. 2. Manzanita. 3. University Towers. 4. Veterans Way/College Avenue light rail station. 5. Design North. 6. Tempe City Hall. 7. West Sixth. 8. Tempe Mission Palms. 9. Tempe Center for the Arts. 10. Hayden Flour Mill. Photos by Mark Klett.

Partial panoramic view of downtown Tempe in 2022

Partial panoramic view of downtown Tempe in 2022

A new skyline emerges

1. University House Tempe. 2 College Avenue Commons. 3. New residential buildings. 4. The Local, Whole Foods Market. 5. The Beam on Farmer. 6. 222 S. Mill Avenue. 7. 100 S. Mill Avenue. 8. Hayden Ferry Lakeside. Photos by Mark Klett.

More Arts, humanities and education

 

People gathered in an art gallery

Annual art exhibit by incarcerated community raises $18K for scholarship

An annual exhibition of art created by people who are incarcerated in Arizona sold 200 pieces on May 16, raising more than $18,000 for a yearly Arizona State University scholarship.This year’s show…

Two people looking at an art instillation; it is dark but you can see their silhouettes against the lit-up art

ASU students, faculty transform MIX Center into a living canvas of immersive design

On April 30, Arizona State University’s Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center in downtown Mesa welcomed nearly 600 guests to MIXibition Spring 2025 — a multisensory showcase of immersive…

View of the University of Birmingham from above

ASU honors student selected for prestigious Fulbright UK Summer Institute

Rei Tedoco is one of only 31 students in the United States to be selected by the US-UK Fulbright Commission to participate in the Fulbright Summer Institute on British Cultural Heritage at the…