Skip to main content

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

A day in the life of a Tempe vantage point in 1908, 2008 and 2022


View of downtown Tempe in 1908, 2008 and 2022
June 22, 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

 

Woman working on iron cast sculpture with people in the background observing

'Devils in the Metal': ASU vet leads iron cast workshop for former service members

Bruce Ward believes everyone has a symbol of strength or resilience, and they have an obligation to find it.    His happens to be a paper crane in an ocean wave. “It’s the idea that we are the…

Portrait of ASU English professor Safiya Sinclair

ASU English professor wins Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry

The awards — and opportunities — keep piling up for Safiya Sinclair, an associate professor in Arizona State University’s Department of English. In mid-April, Sinclair received one of 188 Guggenheim…

Designer Bruce Mau stands in front of a slide reading "Design is leadership. The capacity to change the world. It is not constrained to the visual."

Designer behind ASU’s brand named newest Herberger Institute Professor

Bruce Mau, co-founder and CEO of the Chicago-based holistic design consultancy Massive Change Network, has joined Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts as its newest…