Mark Seliger Photography

My name is Janella Branch and I am a senior photography major. When looking for internships I knew I wanted to be part of a major company or work for a big photographer as I am interested in the commercial and editorial side of photography. During the summer of 2018 when I was looking for internships on Indeed, I came across one for Mark Seliger. Seliger Studios was looking for a studio intern for the summer. I was extremely excited because Mark Seliger is a huge name in photography and I couldn’t believe he was looking for interns. Mark Seliger has been a photographer for over thirty years, he used to be the chief photographer of Rolling Stone, has shot hundreds of editorials and campaigns for famous brands and celebrities. Some people he’s photographed include Obama, Kim and Kanye West, Steve Martin, Drew Barrymore, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Jimmy Carter, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, and many others. Most of his iconic images have been catalogued by the Library of Congress.

I applied through Indeed with my resume and cover letter. I got an email back from the studio manager asking me if I wanted to do a phone interview later in the week. We spoke on the phone about what I would be doing and some of my photography interests. It was a great phone call and she said she would get back to be with whether I got the position. It turned out that the position went to someone else for the summer. But in August she emailed me out of the blue and asked if I could intern for the fall semester, and I said of course.

The studio is in Greenwich Village, New York. My supervisor was Rachel, the Post- Production Manager and Archivist, who also managed the studio. She organized Mark’s prints, negatives, electronic image files, exhibition prints, and gallery contacts. On a regular day I pressed Mark’s darkroom prints, added images into a program that organized past shoots, scanned contact sheets and negatives, dusted images, wrapped frames for an exhibition, packaged and shipped prints to buyers and galleries. I also helped out on shoots that took place in the studio and on location in the city, including one for Italian Vogue and when Oprah came for a shoot. It was really amazing seeing what it was like on a big magazine shoot with fashion models and celebrities. I loved being on set but also doing some behind the scenes work on the paper work involved to get things going and organize all people and companies a part of it.

My biggest take away from this experience was learning about organization and communication. Now I know how to properly store and manage my physical files as well as digital scans of my photography. This really helped to clarify my career goals because I know now that I want to be signed to a photography agency. Mark had his own agent and other in-house employees to manage his work but I think being signed would be the best option for me. I am really glad I did this because it solidified a lot of ideas I had about what I want to do in my photographer but also told me some things I didn’t want to do. Doing an internship was a really great experience for me to learn more about myself and the photo industry.