Photographer Alan Klug was born in Oakland, California. Because his father was a U.S. Navy submarine officer during World War II, the family moved regularly, and Klug developed a lifelong travel habit.

Klug attended the University of Colorado on a poetry scholarship. He obtained an M.A. in 1968 and then taught English at the university level for several years. During this time, he took up painting, which is something he still does.

He began making photographs seriously in 1979 and has been a full-time professional ever since. Of his work, Klug says: "I'm not much interested in nature photography, nor in making pictures of people; I wish rather to discuss, photographically, the artifacts of Western civilization. My work is also in part documentary, since a good deal of what is unique in our civilization is being lost to a homogenization of culture. . . . It is well to have a view of the way it was before."