Photographer Mark Seliger likes inspiration as a roommate

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Ted Loos

Mark Seliger, at home in the West Village, with an array of photographs by the likes of Irving Penn, Arnold Newman and Edward Steichen. Credit: Ike Edeani for The New York Times

That a photographer collects work in his own medium is perhaps not surprising. But Mark Seliger’s West Village compound — a building of some 12,000 square feet that comprises a studio, offices and his home — has an unexpectedly deep array of 20th- and 21st-century images by the likes of Irving Penn, Arnold Newman, Edward Steichen, Paul Caponigro, William Wegman and Diane Arbus. “I never really feel as if I actively go out and collect,” said Mr. Seliger, 59, who had just that moment finished a photo shoot of Drew Barrymore. “I buy photography that I will never think about selling. I like living with the inspiration.” [More]