Ask professional photographer Mike Klemme what his favorite country is, and he will say, without hesitating, the United States.
Klemme has 25 years experience as a photographer and during that time has traveled to 45 different countries all over Europe, Africa and Asia, working as a photographer taking pictures of golf courses for advertisements and pamphlets. His experience and talent helped him earn the honor of being designated as the official Centennial photographer for Oklahoma in 2007.
Several of his Centennial photographs are currently on display at the Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum, which held a reception for Klemme Saturday.
“We created all of these photographs for the Centennial,” Klemme said. “The medallions on the frames of the photos are to designate them as Centennial photos.”
Among the photos were pictures of Lake Lawtona, near Lawton; a speeding train in Okarche; Little Sahara near Waynoka; fiddles in Guthrie, and Beaver’s Bend River at Beaver’s Bend State Park.
Asked where his inspiration as a photographer comes from, Klemme said, “beauty and drama -- seeing things at an angle that most people don’t see it from and unusual light.”
“I’m attracted to those things, because it relates to showing things,” he said, adding, “I like to show people beauty at its most beautiful time.”
For Klemme, photography also is sharing.
“I traveled for a lot of years alone,” he said. “That’s when I realized how much photography is about sharing.”
Klemme, who still travels, said the last time he checked, he had “racked up about four and a half million frequent flier miles.”
Of his travels, he said, people in other countries who ask where he’s from still think of Oklahoma as hot and dry and have a negative opinion of the state. He said that also includes people on the East and West coasts.
Partly because of this, he said, he wanted to come back and photograph Oklahoma to show people what it’s like.
People in foreign countries and in the United States, “they don’t really have any idea, so I took it upon myself to show them.”
Asked why U.S.A. was his favorite country, Klemme said, the “United States is just the best that there is. I love Portugal, Kenya and Japan, but would I live there? No.”
In addition to the individual prints, Klemme’s complete book of Centennial photographs is also on display and offered for sale at the museum.
The book, titled, “Celebrating Oklahoma,” was created so photographs of Oklahoma “could be spread around the world,” he said.
He currently is working on another book, which is about Enid, where he lives and was born and raised.
“We’re also installing photographs in a number of public buildings around the state,” he said.
