by Nahp Suicide

Zoetica is a photographer, painter, the proprietress of the popular art and style blog Biorequiem, a co-founder of Coilhouse Magazine, and an occasional cosmonomad. She hails from Moscow, but resides in Los Angeles, California. She has been a photographer for SuicideGirls since 2006, and has shot more than 100 sets for the site.

How did you first get involved with SuicideGirls?

Fractal (a friend of a friend at the time, now a good friend of mine), had scouted me to model. I explained that I was actually in search of a steady job at the time, and she suggested I come in to interview for an intern position. I quickly became a design assistant and, eventually, Sean suggested I try my hand at shooting sets. For a time I also worked as the SG photography coordinator, style technician and in-house photo-editor.



What’s your background photography-wise?

I’m self-taught, having taken photos obsessively my entire life. Before digital, I took cheap little film cameras everywhere – and have seven scrapbooky photo albums to prove it! 



What was the first photo you had published?

I honestly don’t remember. Probably something in one of my schools’ yearbooks or something in a zine.



How would you describe your style?

Obsessive. When I work with SGs, I often ask them to hold a pose for several minutes at a time, while I capture every nuance.
 In my other work, this is true as well. I look at every detail, search for secret spaces and details, whether I’m shooting a portrait, an editorial, a forest, or a steaming breakfast plate (I love food photography – I even break out a macro lens for that sometimes!). My goal is to capture the feeling of the moment, the texture, the energy. The smell, too, if possible. 



What gear do you use?

Generally, I keep it simple: Canon 5D and a 35 1:4 lens, available light only.




How important is Photoshop in your final images?

It depends entirely on the image and the mood I’m after that day. For SG, I tend to stick with minimal retouching and color correction for the most part, but some sets call for a more stylized approach. 



What gives you ideas and inspires you to create such amazing sets?

I feed my brain as much as time allows – good input yields good output.




What is your favorite image?

It has to be this one (see above) of Radeo, from our set called, Prisoner.

Tell us why it’s your fave and how you achieved it?

I think it still might be my favorite set of mine. There was almost no light aside from a far-away overhead fixture, and it worked out perfectly in helping us create the foreboding atmosphere we had in mind.



Is there anybody or anything you would love to photograph that you haven’t?

No – I want to shoot everything, all the time. Like I said – I’m obsessive!

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by Blogbot

Every week we ask the ladies and gentlemen of the web to show us their finest ink in celebration of #TattooTuesday.

Our favorite submission from Twitter wins a free 3 month membership to SuicideGirls.com.

This week’s #TattooTuesday winner is @goldenguigui from France.

Enter this week’s competition by replying to this tweet with a pic of your fav tattoo and the #tattootuesday hashtag.

Good luck!

A few things to remember:

• You have to be 18 to qualify.
• The tattoo has to be yours…that means permanently etched on your body.
• On Twitter we search for your entries by looking up the hashtag #TattooTuesday, so make sure you include it in your tweet!

Check out the Tattoo Tuesday winners of weeks past!

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Boy Richard Gere is handsome and though he’’s best known as an actor he is also a very intelligent humanitarian. His latest flick is Bee Season, a film which goes to the heart of what he is most passionate about, religion.

Eliza Naumann [Flora Cross] has no reason to believe she is anything but ordinary. Her father Saul [Richard Gere], a beloved university professor, dotes on her talented elder brother Aaron [Max Minghella]. Her scientist mother, Miriam [Juliette Binoche], seems consumed by her career. When a spelling bee threatens to reaffirm her mediocrity, Eliza amazes everyone: she wins.

Her newfound gift garners an invitation not only to the national competition, but an entrée into the world of words and Jewish mysticism that have so long captivated her father’s imagination. But Eliza’s unexpected success hurls the Naumann family dynamic into a tailspin, long-held secrets emerge and she is forced to depend upon her own divination to hold the family together.

Read our exclusive interview with Richard Gere on SuicideGirls.com.

Leon Suicide in High Jinx

• INTO: Music, psychology, sun, laughing (especially for no reason), having weird jokes that only you and your best friends understand, and the obvious: piercings, tattoos, and techno festivals.
• NOT INTO: Arrogance.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: Good music, good parties, sunsets, rainbows, piercings, psychology, and one day festivals.
• MAKES ME SAD: Petty drama, bad weather, and heartbreak.
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Music, my decks, my vinyl, my toothbrush, my laptop.
• VICES: I’d like to think I’ve got none, so it’s up to you to find them 😉

Get to know Leon better over at SuicideGirls.com!

by SG’s Team Agony feat. Rydell

Let us answer life’s questions – because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.

Q: I have been with my boyfriend for about three years, and to my face he seems sweet. However on the internet he ignores me and has no problem talking to sluts. I tried stooping to their level, but then he gave me shit for the smallest bit of cleavage! My next plan is to add and talk to hot shirtless men, but I don’t know if that’s the right plan. What can I do just for him to ‘like’ a photo or ‘comment’ on a status update?

A: Ok where to start with this…Firstly, if he is sweet to your face that’s great, but when he is not around you, including the internet he isn’t? Doesn’t that seem like a bright blinking red flag to you? If he isn’t acting how you expect a boyfriend to act then TALK TO HIM! I have said this I think in every question I have answered for SG’s Got Problems? column. We as people need to learn to talk to each other and not just be silent and think people are mind readers.

You have a voice, use it and express yourself. Be heard! Stop changing how you think you should be and just be you. You don’t need to change who you are, how you are, unless it is to better yourself. Don’t stoop to your boyfriend’s level with the plan you outlined. It’ll just come off as juvenile and desperate. Be yourself, be proud of who you are, and if he doesn’t appreciate you and doesn’t fit in with that lifestyle, there is always a man who will.

Secondly, stop placing your self worth and self esteem on how many Facebook comments and likes you have from others on a social media network. In the grand scope of things does that really matter? I mean it’s FACEBOOK!

All I can say is voice your concerns. If they fall on deaf ears, then you need to man up and either settle for mediocrity in your love life, or go out and find someone better suited for what you need in life.

Rydell

Got Problems? Let SuicideGirls’ team of Agony Aunts provide solutions. Email questions to: gotproblems@suicidegirls.com

by Alex Dueben

Brian Wood’s first comic was Channel Zero, the story of a female freedom fighter in a repressive future America. Initially it didn’t make much of an impact, but it’s become a cult hit, and will be rereleased in a new edition along with its sequel this spring.

Wood has written a number of comics including Local, Demo, DV8, and the young adult comics The New York Four and The New York Five. His most significant work and arguably his best work has been the two series he wrote at Vertigo.

DMZ is one of the great political tales of the past decade and a great story of New York, which recently concluded after a long run. Northlanders, a series of unrelated stories about vikings that are based on historical fact and take place over centuries, is one of the most innovative and interesting comics of the decade.

His two major projects right now are at Dark Horse. With his longtime collaborator Becky Cloonan, Wood is taking over Conan the Barbarian for a 25 issue run. His other major project right now – and for years to come – is The Massive. The series just debuted in the anthology Dark Horse Presents illustrated by Kristian Donaldson and will launched as an ongoing series in June. It explores a group of environmentalists coming to terms with what to do after the world has come to an end.

Read our exclusive interview with Brian Wood on SuicideGirls.com.

Dusk Suicide in Pacification

• INTO: Cats, body mods, zombies, music, love, sex, wolves, owls, bites, you, tea, being naked, movies, boys, girls.
• NOT INTO: War, assholes, bullshit.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: Tea, candy, apples, and my friends.
• MAKES ME SAD: Animal cruelty, loneliness.
• HOBBIES: Eating.
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Cellphone, computer, hair brush, my book of sketches, and my headphones.

Get to know Dusk better over at SuicideGirls.com!