Mark Seliger on Legacy, Emotion, and Capturing Anna

Mark Seliger, the celebrated Texan photographer known for capturing some of the most influential faces in modern history, turns his lens to legendary Filipino model Anna Bayle for Vogue Philippines.

With a career that has defined visual culture across generations, Mark Seliger has photographed some of the most recognizable faces of the 20th and 21st centuries, from musicians and movie stars to presidents and supermodels. Yet for the Texan photographer, it is not fame or fashion that fuels his passion, but the emotional weight of an image. “Emotion,” he says, “is everything.”

“I listen to myself,” Mark reflects on his technique. “I kind of focus on what drives me photographically. And, you know, I tend not to be too concerned about trends…I’m slow and steady. I consider every project a blessing and treat each one with a personal touch.” Seliger’s lens doesn’t just observe, it listens. It waits. And when the subject is ready, it reveals the truth.

From a boy in Texas to one of the most celebrated American portrait photographers of our time, Seliger’s story is a testament to an unwavering passion and a deep thirst for authenticity. Born in Amarillo in 1959 and raised in Houston, his early fascination with photography began with a promise: his brother offered him a Diana camera if he got a base hit in Little League. He didn’t get the hit, but after taking a ball to the shoulder, he still got the camera. That moment ignited a lifelong obsession with the medium.

Seliger’s early years were marked by creative exploration in the makeshift darkroom he built in his family’s bathroom. He went on to attend Houston’s Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and later studied the history of documentary photography at East Texas State University. In 1984, he moved to New York City. Just three years later, he began shooting small assignments for Rolling Stone. By 1992, he had become the magazine’s chief photographer, shooting over 125 covers and forming a long-standing collaboration with design director Fred Woodward.

Mark’s approach has always been rooted in narrative. “The heart for me is the idea,” he said. “It’s like, taking a project and then figuring out what the destination is…whether it’s developing a character, picking a location, figuring out what the studio is going to feel like…telling the story.”

And at the center of that story is trust. “It’s something that you build, hopefully, as early as the shoot starts.” Whether he’s photographing Kurt Cobain or the Dalai Lama, Seliger operates on the same principle: do the research, meet them where they are, and create a space where vulnerability becomes a strength. “I’m very communicative, giving them direction…and then giving them ideas to be able to find a path that works within their kind of geometry.” This philosophy enables him to capture moments of striking honesty, images that reveal his subjects’ true selves.

Although the tools of photography have changed, from film to digital and from darkroom to lightroom, Seliger’s core philosophy remains untouched. “We use technology like a paintbrush,” he said. “But the process hasn’t changed at all for me. The idea is always the impetus behind the storytelling.”

For the cover story, the team initially anticipated a more restrained shoot with Anna Bayle. “We were so worried because it’s two different things,” Seliger admitted. “I think the big surprise for us during the session was that without a lot of, you know, coaching or pushing, we went right into being a supermodel. She moved like she was 20 years old, which I thought was remarkable.”

That instinct, that nearly cellular memory of movement that once earned Bayle the title of “Asia’s first supermodel,” became the shoot’s pulse. “We kind of used that first moment as a template to push her all the way through.” What began as a classical portrait evolved into something more expressive, even theatrical. “What started to build a little bit of a library. I think she saw the direction was changing into something more performative, emotional, and a less stoic portrait. And that was the evolution we felt within the piece.”

Seliger found himself creatively recharged by the experience, working with a fresh publication like Vogue Philippines and a subject like Bayle, who carried both legacy and liberty. “I’m always thrilled to be able to work with magazines that are in the early bloom of their lives,” he said. “It gives me an opportunity to take more risks and more chances…evolving what could be possible within the realm of artwork and editorial.”

The session, he said, shifted from posed to performative. “It turned into what we all hoped it would be, which was about her being one of the great supermodels, where movement and attitude and design became equally important.”

Reflecting on the shoot, Seliger singled out his favorite moments. “I love the picture of the Richard Quinn movement,” he said. “And I love the Comme des Garçons images.” But one of the final frames stood out most. “It was like at the end of the session…she was free. Just that really simple movement of her, kind of moving across the frame. We just caught this great moment…almost very, very dancerly.”

It is that kind of magic that Mark Seliger continues to chase: the unscripted, the poetic, the real. After three decades, a West Village studio, numerous published books, and his work housed in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian and the National Portrait Gallery in London, he remains grounded in what drew him to the camera in the first place, not celebrity or commerce, but emotion.

“It’s not all the mechanics of it,” he said. “That should be almost like the secret curtain. What’s behind it is important. It’s what you feel in the immediate impact of seeing it.”