Page 63 - Arts Management Magazine Future Issue

Left, Johnny Cash. Above, Zoe Kravitz.

Liza Jones: How was your transition from the music industry at LJ: How has the rise of social media affected your career?
Rolling Stone to lifestyle and fashion photography at Conde Nast? MS: Social media is really the abundance of imagery. In some
ways it makes you more accessible than before. In terms of your
Mark Seliger: It has been pretty easy because I did all kinds audience, your audience is much bigger than if you were just
of things back up until 2002 working with Rolling Stone, not in a magazine. The main problem with online is that people
just music. I photographed tons of stories on different types of become more accustomed to reading and looking at stuff on
artists, from writers, musicians, actors and artists in general. It’s their phones now, or their computers, than they did 10-15 years
just a different kind of approach – you’re telling their story, for ago. So, what’s happening is that magazines are just struggling
the most part. With fashion you’re making up your own story. in terms of being able to compete with that.
You’re hiring people to play a role and in fashion the clothing
is really the hero. LJ: I’m sad for the younger generation that is so into social media
that they don’t see how things are printed physically. You look at a
LJ: Do you prefer black-and-white photos over color photos? picture on your phone and then you look at a picture that is beau-
MS: Pretty much everything is determined from whether it’s tifully printed and it’s such a different connection to the photo.
self-assigned or it’s an assignment. So, it’s not like I prefer one MS: Absolutely. That is the downfall, I think, for the way we’re
over the other it just depends on what’s right for the project. For receiving information now that it has kind of taken the beauty
myself I tend to shoot more black-and-white than color though. out of process. So, there’s no longer a sense of process that people

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