by Nahp Suicide

P_Mod is from Strasbourg, France, and has been a photographer for SG since 2006. He specializes in shooting for tattoo magazines, and also takes live music and band promo pics.

How did you first get involved with SuicideGirls?

After a long photography break, my tattoo artist (Reynald, Asphalt Jungle) asked me to do a couple of portraits of some of his costumers. It was a proposition that I declined first cause I felt uncomfortable with portraits. (Basically I was pretty shy and I preferred taking pictures of landscapes, abandoned buildings, and so on.) I discovered SG when looking for good inspiration pictures of tattooed people, and three months later I shot two girls (Ayane & Raia) in Paris with a national TV team behind my back. I hadn’t slept for two days before the shoot, but at least the baptism by fire was done.




What’s your background photography-wise?

I learnt photography [at college] and I graduated 15 years ago. I was pretty disgusted by the artsy/elitist/show-off [element of] the students’ and teachers’ mind-shaping, so I gave up shooting for eight years and worked as an assistant in a photo laboratory. Then digital arrived and the photo processing industry felt down, so I opened my company four years ago. Now I work mostly for the tattoo press and doing band pictures.

What was the first photo you had published?

A picture of Jay Read for the cover of Rise tattoo magazine. 




How would you describe your style?

That’s a pretty difficult question. I don’t work to create a special style actually. Basically I try to keep pictures as close to reality as I can. Photography is in many ways like music, you can hide behind the technology, but it’s not everything. For example, I was at a Dream Theater show a couple of years ago. It was the most well executed gig I’ve ever seen, but the most boring also. Two days later I went to a random punk gig. It was technically a disaster, but way more enjoyable and alive. You can shoot a perfect picture technically, but which doesn’t work cause the moment isn’t there and nothing happens. The shoot is only a part of the process. The selection is also very important: why a picture is a part of your selection, what the picture means for you, and how it represents your mood during the shoot – even if the picture is not technically perfect.

What gear do you use?

A Canon 1D + 50mm + 24-70 95% of the time, and Hasselblad 500CM for analog.




How important is Photoshop in your final images?

I think that a raw image which doesn’t work unedited won’t work edited. I try to select pictures where I won’t have to spend two hours editing, but there’s obviously an element of laziness also.




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

Mostly music visuals, video clips, cinema. Actually, most of the time it’s not a real creation but it’s tributes from existing things, winks or whatever. The trick is I’m usually trying to let the girl bring her idea. I’m just here to help in a technical shaping. It’s not laziness; I find it interesting to involve models in their own idea as SG is basically a way to show yourself. There’s also the possible scenario where there’s no specific theme, in this case we just discuss how we can take advantage of a location, light, and mood, and do something coherent. To mix with some photographers on SG like Steve Prue, Cherry, Albertine or Dwam has been a real inspiration and kind of changed my view on photography generally speaking.




What is your favorite image?

None and many in the same time.

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

My main trouble is when I spend too much time on the pictures, then I always think it’s all crap. I used to have a personal crisis, like “let’s give up photography and open a fishing company in the country side.” On the other hand, I’m more interested in personalities than simple aesthetics, so my faves are obviously the pictures done with people who own a strong universe. I think when you can join personality and aesthetic, you can be sure something will happen. My first thoughts go to people like AnnaLee, Gogo, Lylie, Leopoldine, Dwam, Nemesis, Revenge, Apory, Opale, Sinnah, and so many others. But I’m certainly not objective about it as they are a way more than models and have became true friends.



Is there anybody or anything you would love to photograph that you haven’t? (And tell us why)

I’m usually [limited by] geographic issues, but I’d like to drift off into new encounters so let’s wait and see ; )

Related Posts:
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In Focus: The Photographers of SuicideGirls feat. DarrylDarko
In Focus: The Photographers of SuicideGirls feat. Albertine
In Focus: The Photographers of SuicideGirls feat. Holley
In Focus: The Photographers of SuicideGirls feat. Dwam
In Focus: The Photographers of SuicideGirls feat. Writeboy
In Focus: The Photographers of SuicideGirls feat. IvyLlamas
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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 @Schultzy60 who says he is “in love with each and every Suicide Girl!”

Awe, we <3 you too. Enjoy your shiny new membership! XOX 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

If I got busted for killing someone I would definitely hire lawyer Bob Levin. I actually have no idea how good of a lawyer he is or what kind of law he practices but he writes about comic books and that’’s enough to base my freedom on.

Anyway, Levin is best known as the author of the book The Pirates and the Mouse about Disney suing a group of underground cartoonists known as the Air Pirates in 1971 about a comic book parody of Disney cartoons in which Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Bucky Bug and others get high, have sex and swear a blue streak.

Now Fantagraphics has compiled a book of essays that Levin wrote for The Comics Journal magazine. These essays include subjects like Chester Brown, S. Clay Wilson, Dori Seda, B.N. Duncan, Justin Green, Maxon Crumb, Crockett Johnson, Roy Lichtenstein, Graham Ingels, Jack Katz, Rory Hayes, and more.

Read our exclusive interview with Bob Levin on SuicideGirls.com.

Rambo Suicide in Finalmente

• INTO: Photography, exercise, Nintendo 64, Playstation, being domestic, Photoshop, arts, crafts, crocheting, mysteries, psychology, and animals.
• NOT INTO: Negativity, irresponsibility, side aches on the treadmill, turbulence during airplane rides, Indian cuisine.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: Friends, anything tiny, flowers, tea, cats, chocolate, new clothes, laughing, BBQs, sunshine, alone time, a clean house, success, margaritas, karaoke, bowling.
• MAKES ME SAD: Animal cruelty and obscene wealth.
• HOBBIES: Dancing, skating, working out, posing nude, watching TV series on DVD, riding my bike, drawing, cross stitching, making greeting cards, reading, and writing.
• MAKES ME SAD: Animal cruelty, obscene wealth, really cute boys who are taken, shitty tattoos, disappointing my parents.
• HOBBIES: Dancing, yoga, watching TV series on DVD, riding my bike, drawing, cross stitching, making greeting cards, reading, writing, photography, swimming, camping, bargain hunting.
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Chapstick, eyeliner, sunglasses, Bovi, and a fresh ass pair of Vans.
• VICES: Junk food, staying up late, talking about myself too much.
• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Watching movies, playing video games, reading, cooking, sleeping, playing with kitty, shopping, driving, and making arts & crafts.

Get to know Rambo better over at SuicideGirls.com!

by Andrew Shaffer

“There’s a very fine line between pleasure and pain, Anastasia. They are two sides of the same coin, one not existing without the other. I can show you how pleasurable pain can be.”

– Christian Grey, the hero of E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey

“Patrons at my library are freaking out over 50 Shades of Grey,” Chicago librarian Leah White told me. Since the BDSM erotic romance novel (and its two sequels) is available only as “print-on-demand” through a small Australian publisher (TheWritersCoffeeShop.com), libraries and bookstores have had trouble keeping it in stock. Still, its popularity has steadily grown in the US over the past year, fueled in part by ebooks, which account for more than 90% of the trilogy’s 100,000-plus sales.

According to one Huffington Post blogger in January, the book is so engrossing that “moms are forgetting to pick their kids up from school.” And on March 1, following a salacious story in the New York Post, 50 Shades of Grey finally hit the top spot on Amazon’s Kindle books bestseller list. Today Show host Hoda Kotb even jumped on the bandwagon. “Hello steamy!” she tweeted after downloading the ebook. (This was particularly alarming to me, since my mother watches Hoda and her co-host Kathie Lee Gifford religiously.) Has BDSM gone mainstream?

First, let’s look at the plot of 50 Shades of Grey. Anastasia Steele, a college-age virgin who has never been kissed, meets Christian Grey, the 27-year-old billionaire CEO of Grey’s Enterprises Holdings. Christian is unbelievably handsome with his “tousled hair” and “expensive body wash.” He is also unbelievably kinky. He lost his virginity to a dominatrix when he was fifteen, and, after five years as her submissive, became a dom himself. He used his vast wealth to turn a room in his penthouse apartment into a virtual dungeon, nicknamed the “Red Room of Pain.” And he wants to share his love of BDSM (and fine wine, classical music, and Bruce Springsteen) with Anastasia.

The sex is well-written and James’ portrayal of BDSM is, for the most part, accurate. While Christian and Anastasia start out with “vanilla” sex acts, they gradually add spanking, bondage, riding crops, and object insertion into their repertoire. While such activities are old hat in the erotic fiction genre, they are shockingly explicit for a book being discussed by mainstream media. James teases the reader with an exhaustive list of sex acts and scenarios by way of a D/S contract. “No fisting, you say. Anything else you object to?” Christian asks Anastasia. “Anal intercourse doesn’t exactly float my boat,” she says. He responds, “I’ll agree to [remove] the fisting, but I’d really like to claim your ass, Anastasia.” The author takes the D/S relationship to extremes, however, as Christian attempts to prohibit Anastasia from snacking between meals and dictate how many times a week she works out (four, if you must know). As many readers have wondered, Is this BDSM or Weight Watchers?

The one problem I had with James’ portrayal of BDSM is the use of the lifestyle as “evidence” for how “dark” the hero is. “I’m fifty shades of fucked up, baby,” he tells Anastasia, a reference to both his abusive past and his love of BDSM.

“It wants us to think of Christian’s BDSM as something that’s wrong with him, a symptom of his inner, childhood demons,” Angela Toscano writes on the romance blog Dear Author. “But it also wants us to get off on it. Like teenage girls giggling over pictures of penises, it seems to say of BDSM, ‘Tee he he he! That’s so gross,’ but secretly loving the titillation that comes from viewing the forbidden.” It’s in sharp contrast to the sex-positive portrayal of BDSM as healthy and normal that one finds in most erotic fiction.

Some media outlets have dubbed 50 Shades of Grey “mommy porn” for the book’s almost singular appeal to middle-aged mothers, most of whom have never read an erotic book (let alone one featuring BDSM). “I am not in the habit of reading erotica, but this trilogy makes it seem okay, even for Westchester county,” one reader wrote.

Why this book? If you’re looking for erotic women’s fiction, there’s no shortage of better books out there, something even the most rabid E.L. James fans admit. But part of the book’s appeal is that “everybody is reading it.” A quick glance at Amazon reveals that customers who bought 50 Shades of Grey also bought the Hunger Games trilogy, Heaven is for Real, Steve Jobs’ biography, and novels by Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult. In other words, big, popular books and authors.

Regardless of why it’s popular, 50 Shades of Grey‘s very existence is leading to some interesting, sex-positive discussions. “I found myself explaining what BDSM was to some of the moms at Saturday morning basketball,” publicist Alison Brod told The New York Post. Whether or not this signifies that BDSM (or even erotica) has gone mainstream is up in the air at this point, but it’s not inconceivable that 50 Shades of Grey could potentially do for BDSM what Twilight did for vampires.

Andrew Shaffer is the author of Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love, a book which takes a humorous look at the disastrous love lives of history’s smartest men and women. His writing has appeared in Mental Floss and Maxim. Stephen Colbert, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, once called Shaffer’s atheist Christmas cards “un-American.” Visit him online at EvilReads.com/.

He is currently serializing a Fifty Shades of Grey parody (Fifty-One Shades, because it’s one better) at: EvilReads.com/Fifty-One-Shades

by SG’s Team Agony feat. Morgan

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

Q: I’m the girlfriend of a fella who is has always been a big PS3 fan, but lately I feel like it’s replacing me. Like I swear I think it hurts him to leave it for long enough to have sex. And when were done, he’s running back to it. What can I do? Really wanting to smash it with a bat 🙁

A: Even as someone who is a pretty dedicated gamer myself, I sympathize. No matter what your significant other is busy with, it can feel hurtful to feel that they are more interested in a hobby than they are in you. The best advice I can give you is to talk directly to your boyfriend about this. When you do, try to avoid sounding accusatory or implying that you want him to give up PS3 completely.

Use “I” statements to tell him in more detail about your reactions when he spends too much time gaming and not enough time with you: “I feel like I don’t get to spend enough time with you when you game all evening,” for example. A good partner should be able to make a compromise with you so that he feels like he still gets to enjoy his hobby, but you don’t feel ignored because of it.

Morgan

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

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Recently Matt Damon has been working with such veteran actors as Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and William Hurt. I wonder if Damon has any concept that in 20 years he will become one of these veteran actors who beats the percentages and does more good films than bad. His stellar work over the years has proved that, and he even makes good popcorn flicks such as The Bourne franchise and Ocean’s 11.

His latest role in Syriana is his most mature performance to date. He plays Bryan Woodman an energy analyst at an energy trading company, living in Geneva with his wife and two children. After a tragedy happens within his family, he uses that as leverage to make a deal with a Middle Eastern Prince.

Read our exclusive interview with Matt Damon on SuicideGirls.com.