HOUSTON, TX (Dec. 15, 2005) – Internationally known photographer Mark Seliger – widely recognized for his portraits of such celebrities as Britney Spears, Paul McCartney and Lenny Kravitz – will bring his collection of portraits of Holocaust survivors to Houston in a new exhibit opening Jan. 13, 2006 at Holocaust Museum Houston.

The exhibit, “When They Came to Take My Father” runs through April 2 and is free and open to the public. The public is invited to meet Seliger at a free reception at 7 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2006, at the Museum, 5401 Caroline St., in Houston’s Museum District.

The exhibit will formally open to the public at 9 a.m. on Jan. 13.

Seliger is an editorial photographer who was born in Amarillo, Texas and raised in Houston. He attended Houston’s High School for Performing and Visual Arts and later graduated from East Texas State University. He currently lives and works in New York City and is under contract to Conde Nast Publications, working for such publications as GQ and Vanity Fair.

Until recently, Seliger was chief photographer for Rolling Stone, a position he held for more than 10 years, focusing on photo documentaries of the world’s top musicians and actors. Seliger has published several books, including: "When They Came To Take My Father: Voices of the Holocaust,” “Physiognomy,” "Lenny Kravitz/Mark Seliger” and in October 2005 “In My Stairwell!”

Seliger has shot many humanitarian ad campaigns, including work for AmFAR, Vote or Die, the MJF Foundation, Keep a Child Alive and done music packaging projects for Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, and Paul McCartney and clients such as Rocawear, Tommy Hilfiger, Sony Music, IBM and Paramount.

His photographs have won countless awards, including the Alfred Eisenstaedt Photography Award in 1999 and a Gold Award from the Society of Publication Designers for a GQ story on Will Ferrell in 2004.

His portraits of Holocaust survivors such as Houston brothers Max, Sol and Sigmund Jucker as well as Houston artist Alice Lok Cahana combine the experiences of Holocaust survivors with fine portraits capturing their individual personalities.

Seliger chose to document the history, courage and spirit of that period by photographing more than 50 survivors of the Holocaust. Twenty of those portraits will be included in the Houston exhibition.

His book and the photos included in the Museum’s newest exhibition capture with truth and clarity the stories and images of survival of the men and women who lived through the brutality of World War II to triumph over oppression. Their wrenching first-person accounts accompany their intimate photographs and tell of their Holocaust experiences with an immediacy that is both mesmerizing and appalling.

The photos and accompanying stories in the new exhibit vary from those of the misery of the day-by-day experience in the concentration camps to those that depict the ever mounting dread of having a hiding place invaded by the German SS troopers and those of families fleeing and being separated across the world.

Taken together, Seliger’s collection of words and images forms a moving testimony to human dignity and a record of history that cannot, and must not, be forgotten.

The exhibit is made possible with the support of Nina and Michael Zilkha, with special thanks to Continental Airlines, official airline of Holocaust Museum Houston.

A related exhibit of Seliger’s non-Holocaust photographs opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as part of FotoFest 2006 on Feb. 6, 2006.

Holocaust Museum Houston promotes awareness and educates the public of the dangers of prejudice, hatred and violence against the backdrop of the Holocaust by fostering remembrance, understanding and education.

Holocaust Museum Houston is free and open to the public and is located in Houston's Museum District at 5401 Caroline St., Houston, TX, 77004. For more information about Holocaust Museum Houston, call 713-942-8000 or visit www.hmh.org.