Mark Seliger

Mark Alan Seliger (born May 23, 1959) is an American photographer noted for his portraiture.

Seliger was born in 1959 in Amarillo, Texas, the son of Carol Lee and Maurice, a traveling pipe salesman.

The family moved to Houston in 1964.

Seliger's first camera was a Diana given to him by his brother Frank and at 13 he took an introductory darkroom class at a Jewish Community Center.

Seliger attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston.

During and after his senior year he did printing work for local photographer Fred Damon.

He attended East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University Commerce), where he studied under James Newberry with an emphasis in Documentary and Rob Lawton in Design.

Seliger cites Arnold Newman as one of the first photographers he connected with, particularly his portrait of Igor Stravinsky emulating the pose of a piano.

Seliger moved to New York City in 1984.

At first he would cold call photographers from a pay phone until one of them agreed to let him assist.

Over time he learned from the assortment of photographers he worked with.

Eventually he took on a long-term position assisting John Madere, a corporate and editorial photographer.

After assisting Madere for a year and a half, Seliger went out on his own.

The first magazine to hire him was Esquire where he shot journalist Bryant Gumbel wearing a cubs hat, an assignment that led to more work with other business magazines.

Seliger began working for Rolling Stone in 1987, first hired by Laurie Kratochvil, the magazine's director of photography at the time.

One of his first assignments for the magazine was photographing a young LL Cool J at his grandmother's home in Hollis, Queens.

From 1992 to 2002, he was Chief Photographer for Rolling Stone, during which time he shot over 188 covers for the magazine.

Beginning in 1992, Seliger became Rolling Stone's Chief Photographer.

Over the next decade he shot 188 covers for the magazine.

They co-directed music videos for Hole "Violet" (1994), Joan Osborne "One of Us" (1996), Shawn Colvin "Sunny Came Home" (1997), Paula Cole "I Don't Want to Wait" (1997), Natalie Merchant "Ophelia" and "Kind and Generous"(both 1998), Lenny Kravitz "I Belong to You"and Shinehead "Jamaican in New York" and commercials for The Gap starring artists such as Missy Elliot, Aerosmith and LL Cool J. Seliger's other music videos include "She" by Elvis Costello, "Stillness of Heart" and "I Belong to You" by Lenny Kravitz, "Kind and Generous" by Natalie Merchant, "Maria" by Willie Nelson, "Revelator" by Gillian Welch and "Wake Me Up" by Avicii co-directed by Barney Miller.

In 1996, Seliger published his first book, When They Came to Take My Father: Voices of the Holocaust.

He later described the book, which covers subject matter that was personal and unedited, as one of the high points in his career.

During his time at Rolling Stone, Seliger began a long-term collaborative relationship with design director, Fred Woodward.

From 2002 to 2012 he was under contract with Condé Nast Publications for GQ and Vanity Fair and has shot for numerous other magazines.

Seliger has published a number of books, including When They Came to Take My Father: Voices of the Holocaust, Physiognomy, and On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories, and his photographs are included in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

He has done advertising work for Adidas, Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Apple, Dom Pérignon, Fila, Gap, HBO, Hourglass Cosmetics, Hulu, KITH, Lee Jeans, Levi's, McDonald's, Netflix, Ralph Lauren, Ray-Ban, Rolex, Showtime, Sony, Universal and Viacom, among others.

He is also the lead singer of the country band Rusty Truck.

In 2002, Seliger moved from Rolling Stone to Conde Nast Publications, initially under contract for GQ and Vanity Fair.

Other magazines he has photographed for include British Vogue, Citizen K, Details, Elle, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, German Vogue, Hero, Heroine, Interview, Vogue Italia, L'Uomo Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, Purple, Time, Vogue China, Vogue Hommes, Vogue Russia, Vogue Spain, and W.

In 2005, Seliger published In My Stairwell which features artists photographed in the elevator shaft-turned-stairwell of his loft studio.

In 2006, Seliger opened 401 Projects, a photography gallery and community space next to his studio in the West Village.

Since 2014, Seliger has been photographing actors and directors at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party following the Academy Awards.

Each year he and set designer Thomas Thurnauer design a 15’ x 30" portable studio for the event. On the night of the party about 100 actors will sit for their portrait.

In 2016, Seliger published On Christopher Street: Transgender Stories, which includes over 70 portraits of transgender people.

Seliger began documenting his West Village neighborhood which had been rapidly gentrifying and the project evolved to tell a story about the transgender community.

Photographs from the collection were featured in a 2021-2022 exhibition at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

The museum's curator wrote of the photographs: "These portraits remind us that Christopher Street is more than just a physical place – it is a feeling, an idea, that redefines notions of home and community."

In 2019, Seliger was named an American Portrait Gallery honoree by the National Portrait Gallery, which acquired the photographer's portrait of Lin-Manuel Miranda dressed as the character Hamilton from his hit musical by the same name.

In 2020, Seliger auctioned off 26 photographs to benefit COVID-19 relief efforts.

The photographs included portraits of Tom Hanks, Jennifer Lopez, Brad Pitt, Barack Obama, Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen, among others, and raised a total of $232,375 for a number of charities chosen by each of the featured celebrities.