Company also enters into an alliance with Supply & Demand
Grand Large, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, has signed director Mark Seliger for U.S. representation.
Perhaps best known for his celebrity portraiture, Seliger was chief photographer at Rolling Stone, where he shot more than 185 covers, and continues to contribute regularly to many publications, including Vanity Fair and other Condé Nast titles.. He has been directing commercials and music videos for more than 25 years.
Seliger joins Grand Large during a period of growth for the 20-year-old company. The new alliance with production company Supply & Demand adds Grand Large alongside ODD (Office of Development & Design), a design and animation shop, and Taste in Motion, a tabletop company, as a “partner” shop. It also joins together two old friends: Steve Horton, executive producer and founder of Grand Large, and Tim Case, founder of Supply & Demand.
Horton remains the sole owner of the Grand Large. He pointed to ODD, which offers its expertise in design and development, help on presentations and treatments, and postproduction capabilities, as a “fantastic benefit” of the new relationship. In addition, he explained that the move gives Grand Large access to the seasoned and dynamic team of producers, strategists and business affairs experts at Supply & Demand, expanding his resources.
“Steve has wonderful taste and highly creative people are attracted to him,” said Case. “In addition, his roots are on the agency side, so he knows how to blend the two agency and directing worlds beautifully and respectfully. I just like seeing his face when I am in NYC.”
Horton was equally effusive about the new association. “Producing a select group of talent with a modern aesthetic while collaborating with visionary partners and clients is our best way forward. I am elated to solidify my relationship with long-time colleague Tim Case and Supply & Demand,” he said, adding, “Mark Seliger is the perfect addition to the level of talent for which we have been known.”
Seliger joins Grand Large after many years of directing through his own company, which continues to handle his print assignments. His list of advertising clients is long, including Ray-Ban, Levi’s, Gap, Stella Artois, Dom Perignon, YSL, and Fila. The lineup of celebrities he has directed and photographed is a who’s who of top names in politics, music, and film: the Dalai Lama, Barak Obama, Kurt Cobain, Tom Hanks, Lenny Kravitz, and Lin Manuel Miranda, among others.
Horton first met Seliger when Grand Large produced and launched a limited series on photography, hosted by Seliger, called “Capture,” for YouTube’s Reserve Channel. “I was very impressed with how comfortable Mark makes people feel, as well as with his curiosity and sensitivity to the arts. I’ve watched his career develop and have admired how strong his narrative storytelling in film has become,” said Horton.
“Steve and I share a common affinity for storytelling and the elevation of photography and filmmaking,” explained Seliger. “My respect and passion for the applied arts continues to drive and inspire every project I work on.”
Seliger joins a directorial roster which includes Trân Anh Hùng, whose most recent feature film, “The Taste of Things,” won him the Best Director award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival; Julie Taymor, the first woman in Broadway history to win a Tony Award for Best Director (for “The Lion King”); and Gaysorn Thavat, a Cannes Gold Lion winner;
Portraits from Seliger’s recent book, “Christopher Street:Transgender Portraits,” are currently on display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston for a summer exhibit. His photographs are part of the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
In addition, Seliger is the recipient of the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, Lucie Award, Clio Grand Prix, Cannes Lions Grand Prix, several One Show pencils, ASME, SPG, and the Texas Medal of Arts Award.
Grand Large is represented by Minerva (Shauna Seresin and Mary Knox) on the East Coast, and Sonia Reps (Sonia Blum and Ally Khajenouri) in the Midwest.
Lois Lipman’s “First We Bombed New Mexico” Tells Story of Downwinders From 1st Atomic Test
It was the summer of 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan, killing thousands of people as waves of destructive energy obliterated two cites. It was a decisive move that helped bring about the end of World War II, but survivors and the generations that followed were left to grapple with sickness from radiation exposure.
At the time, U.S. President Harry Truman called it "the greatest scientific gamble in history," saying the rain of ruin from the air would usher in a new concept of force and power. What he didn't mention was that the federal government had already tested this new force on U.S. soil.
Just weeks earlier in southern New Mexico, the early morning sky erupted with an incredible flash of light. Windows rattled hundreds of miles away and a trail of fallout stretched to the East Coast.
Ash from the Trinity Test rained down for days. Children played in it, thinking it was snow. It covered fresh laundry that was hanging out to dry. It contaminated crops, singed livestock and found its way into cisterns used for drinking water.
The story of New Mexico's downwinders — the survivors of the world's first atomic blast and those who helped mine the uranium needed for the nation's arsenal — is little known. But that's changing as the documentary "First We Bombed New Mexico" racks up awards from film festivals across the United States.
It's now screening in the northern New Mexico community of Los Alamos as part of the Oppenheimer Film Festival. It marks a rare chance for the once secret city that has long celebrated the scientific discoveries of J. Robert Oppenheimer — the father of the atomic bomb — to contemplate another more painful piece of the nation's nuclear legacy.
The film, directed and... Read More