Mark Seliger

Mark Alan Seliger (born May 23, 1959) is an American photographer noted for his portraiture. From 1992 to 2002, he was Chief Photographer for Rolling Stone, during which time he shot over 188 covers for the magazine. 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.

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

Career 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. Beginning in 1992, Seliger became Rolling Stones Chief Photographer. Over the next decade he shot 188 covers for the magazine.

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

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.

In 2021, Seliger published The City that Finally Sleeps, which documents the empty streets of New York City during March 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Seliger has described the project as "a celebration of resilience and hope."

Seliger has said that a great portrait comes from composition, the emotional response and the storytelling. Some of the notable people Seliger has photographed over the years include: Jennifer Aniston, David Beckham, Justin Bieber, Tony Bennett, David Bowie, Tom Brady, Matthew Broderick, David Byrne, Kobe Bryant, Jimmy Carter, Johnny Cash, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dalai Lama, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Lady Gaga, George Harrison, Jerry Garcia, Kendrick Lamar, Gisele Bündchen, Jay-Z, Lenny Kravitz, Paul McCartney, Nelson Mandela, Eddie Murphy, Willie Nelson, Paul Newman, Barack Obama, Al Pacino, Sarah Jessica Parker, Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Iggy Pop, Aly Raisman, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Robert Redford, Julia Roberts, The Rolling Stones, Susan Sarandon, Martin Scorsese, Jerry Seinfeld, Cindy Sherman, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Uma Thurman, Desmond Tutu, U2, Neil Young, Serena and Venus Williams, and Malala Yousafzai, among others.

Notable photographs Nirvana on a 1992 cover of Rolling Stone magazine with Kurt Cobain wearing a t-shirt with the slogan: "Corporate Magazines Still Suck."

Personal life Since 1996, Seliger has lived and worked at a three-story converted warehouse at the corner of Charles and West Streets in the West Village. The 19th-century building was originally built as a horse stable for a correctional facility. After Seliger purchased the property in 1996, architect Peter Mimmelstein converted the 10,000-square-foot building into a studio, offices and Seliger's home. The building's giant elevator shaft-turned-stairwell was the setting for the portraits included in his 2005 book, Mark Seliger: In My Stairwell. He sold the house in 2015.