The camera’s ability to document landscape changes over time will be the focus of photographs by Mark Klett and local artist Steve Harp at exhibitions opening at the DePaul Art Museum, 2350 N. Kenmore Ave., Sept. 15 and running until Nov. 23.

“Mark Klett: Ideas About Time” consists of more than 90 photographs, digital prints and electronic images primarily of the American West. Klett, who for years worked as a photographer for the United States Geological Survey, undertook the vast task of re-photographing landscapes first shot by geological survey photographers in the 19th century. The passage of time and its resulting effects of change and decay are well documented by the artist.

Klett, who holds degrees in geology and photography, will present a lecture on his work at 3 p.m. Sept. 15 in Levan Hall, 2320 N. Kenmore Ave., Room 100. A Regents Professor at Arizona State University, Klett has received numerous photography awards and has exhibited his work internationally.

The Klett exhibition was organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum.

The exhibition showing in the north gallery of the museum, “The Biography of Landscape: Jackson Park,” is a photographic depiction of the human story “written” into the landscape of one of Chicago’s most picturesque parks. Steve Harp, professor of photography and media art at DePaul, investigates the present state of the historical site of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. He operates from the assumption that landscapes are texts that are both interpreted and created by humans. The photographs document changes in Jackson Park’s landscape – from swampy shoreline, to world exposition, to urban park, to nature sanctuary.

“Both exhibits draw our attention to the fleeting nature of what we so often perceive as permanent,” said Laura Fatemi, associate director of the museum. “We learn how to look at the landscape and acknowledge the human impact on what we are viewing.”

A second Harp exhibition, “Ordinary Landscapes,” offers an examination of Pleasant Prairie, a small, rural town in southern Wisconsin. In these images, Harp explores questions relating to home, rootedness and transience, connection and disconnection to the place where one lives.

Harp, who has taught at DePaul for the past 10 years, holds a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in film and graduate degrees in communication studies/film and photography. His widely exhibited work often deals with questions of travel, place and history.

The DePaul Art Museum is free and open to the public. Museum hours are: Mon. – Thurs., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fri., 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. For more information about the landscape exhibitions or future exhibitions of the DePaul Art Museum, call 773/325-7506 or visit the Web site at museums.depaul.edu/artwebsite.

Editors’ Note: J-PEG images from “Mark Klett: Ideas About Time” and Steve Harp’s exhibits are available upon request.