Award-winning photographer Mark Klett to speak

LAWRENCE — Renowned photographer Mark Klett will give a Hallmark Symposium Lecture at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 17, at the Spencer Museum of Art. He will lead Coffee @ The Commons, an informal conversation driven by audience questions, at 1 p.m. Friday, April 18.

Klett’s photographs document the intersection of cultures, landscapes and time. He worked as a geologist before turning to photography. He established his artistic perspective on the landscape of the American West during his tenure as the chief photographer for the Rephotographic Survey Project. That project re-photographed Western scenes that had been first captured by surveyors in late 1800s. They made a special effort to use the same vantage points and similar conditions as the originals.

Klett has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and others. His work has been exhibited and collected by museums for more than 30 years and is part of more than 80 collections worldwide. He is the author of 15 books, including the recently published "Reconstructing the View" with Rebecca Senf and Byron Wolfe, and "Wendover: The Half-Life of History" with William Fox. He is also a regents’ professor of art at Arizona State University.

Both of the events are supported by the Hallmark Corporate Foundation with additional support provided by the Department of Design, The Commons, the Kansas Geological Survey, the Franklin D. Murphy Lecture Fund, the Department of Art History and the Spencer Museum of Art. Admission is free and open to the public.

The Hallmark Symposium Series was established in 1984 through the generosity of the Hallmark Corporate Foundation. Its goal is to enriching the education of KU students through exposure to articulate designers, artists and educators from the U.S. and abroad. During nearly 30 years of collaboration, approximately 10,000 students have benefited from the symposia.