Why Mark Seliger’s Photos Are So Magical
Over the 14 years I’ve run the Phoblographer, we’ve interviewed several photographers. Most American photographers lack something that seems commonplace amongst Eastern European photographers. Those photographers blend mystery, magic, and Renaissance-style beauty into their images. Indeed, there are American photographers who do this, too — and they especially have different retouching standards. One of my favorites is Mark Seliger — who is often seen alongside Annie Leibovitz as one of the greats in this department. But most American photographers don’t seem to bring a sense of magic to their images. There’s a reason for that.The Magic of Mark SeligerIf you look at Mark’s images, they seem very unlike what so many other photographs look like. The poses aren’t the same. The energy felt in the images comes from the heroes of his photographs. And more importantly, the images don’t look like they’re inspired by cinema or anything else like that.Many American photographers take inspiration from cinema. And that’s fine for what it is. But so many things these days look alike because they’re all drawing inspiration from the same source. The blade runner look is well-defined in a specific way. But imagine if Blade Runner were a book first. If that were the case, photographers would need to use their imagination. That’s the problem: photographers are too inspired or draw creativity from visual mediums instead of text-based mediums. They’re not using their imagination in the way that cinematographers have to reinterpret books into movies. This is part of what makes Mark Seliger’s photos so magical: you can tell he’s taking a lot of inspiration from not a lot of other visual media. He finds beauty in everyday life, the energy of the person in front of him, and his own interpretations of things. In interviews, he has also talked about some of the great photographers who came before him. Plus, he often talks about how he’s worked with other artists.When Mark was still cutting his teeth, this was fine. There weren’t that many photographers and the world was a different place. Today, the barrier of entry is much lower. Anyone can be a passionate photographer these days. And since that’s happened, there has been a proliferation of visual media. This, in turn, makes us all copy and draw inspiration from one another even if it’s unintentional. That’s the problem.How to Make Your Photographs Magical: ReadI sincerely think that this problem can be fixed with one big thing: reading. Reading gets photographers creatively recharged because they’re not being bombarded with a million notifications and stimuli. It allows you to focus your attention on something. Lots of practices and mental health experts will tell you to stop what you’re doing and focus on your breathing. It’s the same thing they tell you in every single yoga class at the start or during some part of it. But as you try to do that, other stimuli come up. In today’s world, it’s not enough.Quiet your brain. Make it actively consume text-based media and make it work to create worlds instead of passively just sitting back and taking something in. The mental silence you give yourself is a gift that will continue to help you create. Photographers often don’t want to be inspired from other photographers at all — they want to be original. But the only way to really be original is to use your imagination and then bring it life in your images. It’s even better ifFor more inspiration, I like to also turn to photo books like those by Mark Seliger. And you should too!
Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./
HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice."
PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others.
EXPERIENCE:
Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things.
EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc.
FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
