Klaus Merkel (*1940) is a German photographer and author. He studied art history and archaeology at the University of Munich and painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Berlin before devoting himself entirely to his passion: photographing stones. Merkel traveled the world for his photographs of rock formations, cemeteries, places of worship, old tree trunks and landscapes that look as if they have been petrified. His main artistic work is represented in the illustrated books "Reading Time in the Text of Nature" (1997), "Album of Stones" (2005) and "Trees like Stones" (2013), which are also available as a signed, limited "Trilogy of Stone and Time" edition (Lars Müller Publishers, 2013).