Inside Seka - The Platinum Princess of Porn (28 page)

With Ginger Lynn.

31.
Art

For a while, I wasn’t doing films except for
Club
’s R-rated ones. But I was doing plenty of photo shoots for three different photographers: Dennis Scott in Chicago, Suze Randall in L.A., and Joanie Alum in England.

I used Dennis when I first came to Chicago. He also shot for Australian
Playboy
and has always been very highly regarded. Some photographers have a knack for shooting food or nature, while others really know how to shoot people. In my opinion, these three are masters at shooting women. Suze and Joanie worked for
Club Magazine
a lot and when the publication asked me to model for Suze, I said absolutely, because she did gorgeous work. None of them wanted to give up the rights to the pictures, but I ended up retaining the ownership of the transparencies because otherwise I wouldn’t have done them. At the time it was unheard of for a model to wield such power.

Suze was a riot to work with. She was very motivating and had the best make-up artists, stylists, and set designers. You would go in and there was nothing you’d have to do but have your make-up and hair done and walk out in front of the camera. That took a lot of the stress off getting ready for a shoot. She always had great music playing, which was helpful. To be in front of a camera with nobody saying or doing anything is kind of boring. She had this chair that looked like an old school desk with wheels she’d put on it to roll around the studio. She’d just be flying around on this contraption. Suze was an interesting-looking woman, too. She had the clearest, bluest eyes, with extremely short, curly hair. And her British accent was so expressive. You could hear the enthusiasm in her voice.

It was an experience working with her because she’d work very quickly. Using four or five cameras, she’d shoot a roll of film and her assistant would just hand her another one. Keeping up the energy and pace, everything would just click and work very well. Of course, those were the days before digital cameras. We’d have Polaroids and check the lighting and make-up, but once she started shooting, everything was “brilliant, sparkling,” and all those other catchy British phrases. She’d shoot one hundred or so rolls of film and there were thirty-five pictures on a roll of 35mm slides. There would be literally 3,500 pictures shot. The reason you did that was if you could get two or three good pictures from a hundred pictures taken, you were happy. When we would finish the shoot, she would have the film developed. She’d mark the ones she liked and send me the pictures to edit, as I had final approval. Then I’d send them to
Club.
It was a wonderful experience.

Suze was like a painter. I don’t know if you could use Monet or Renoir as comparisons, but like them, she’d set the stage to take the photographs. The lighting had to be just right for the subject to look her best. If she made you look good, it made her look good. She used jewel-toned colors. Really rich emerald greens. Cobalt blues. Ruby reds. Even the make-up artist had to be the very best. She used Alexis Vogel. Alexis’s father photographed more
Playboy
covers than any other
Playboy
photographer to date. Like a photographer uses lighting, Alexis used her make-up and brushes. She works for the crème de la crème of Hollywood such as Pamela Anderson, Jay Leno, and the
American Idol
participants, just to name a few.

Many photographers were frugal and would use their own vehicles, but Suze wouldn’t do that. She’d lease a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce. Everything was extremely highbrow with her. And she treated everyone with respect. Not just the model, but the make-up artist and her assistants. It made it easy for everyone to work because they all got along. She eventually built an empire and today does films as well. Her daughter Holly was just a baby when I was being shot, and now she’s also in the business. Suze, like Dennis and Joanie, loved the work we did together and none of them felt they were selling out because they were shooting nudes for adult magazines.

Dennis was quite different in the way he did things. He was much more of a romantic. He would have music playing — whatever the person in front of the camera wanted. I preferred a little rock and roll or jazz. But he was much quieter. He doesn’t talk a whole lot in general. When you see his work, you can tell a true romantic had done them, because the lighting is softer and the settings he chose were dreamier. There was a famous book Dennis did called
Four Faces,
with pictures of Veronica Lake, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich, and another legend from that time.

I always liked Marlene, so we redid that famous picture of Marlene, down to the cigarette holder and gloves from that time period. I’ve had people look at that shot and say, “That’s a great picture of Marlene Dietrich.” I’ll tell them, “That’s not Marlene, that’s me.” He was a master with lighting, as were Suze and Joanie.

Joanie was a gorgeous woman. Just beautiful. She was really tall, willowy, and youthful-looking, with that Bo Derek kind of hair. She dressed very hip. Joanie was married, but I can’t remember her husband’s name. Very up. Vivacious. They flew me to work with her. I thought, “How am I going to get in front of this woman? She’s too gorgeous.”

It was intimidating for me to take my clothes off in front of pretty women. Joanie looked like she should have been in front of the camera; she was just striking. Like Suze, she was very vocal and physical. But unlike Suze, who sat in her chair most of the time, and Dennis who was very quiet, slower paced, and methodical, Joanie would be up on six to eight foot ladders shooting down on you. Or she’d be on the floor or shooting from around a corner. Her body would be as contorted and twisted up as the person in front of the camera. You can always identify one of her pictures by the way they are posed. I don’t think I ever hurt as bad as after the first day I shot with her. She’d like to get you all scrunched and twisted up, and you’d think, “How in God’s name is this going to look?” But they were always great photographs. Her husband was in charge of this cone-shaped light she called her “pussy light.” This was back in the days when women still had hair on their genitalia. She’d put a little bit of oil on your pubes and he knew just how to hold the light to get just the right amount of illumination there. You never heard him say a whole lot of anything. I truly believe he didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, like an onlooker or anything like that. He was very much a gentleman.

They were all totally professional. They never came on to their subjects. I eventually did date Dennis, though. One night he said, “Why don’t you come on over? I’ll order some dinner and go through the pictures.” We always liked each other and there was a good chemistry there and things just happened. I loved him to death. He was a nice man. But I don’t think either of us was ever in love with the other. It was something safe. I knew what he did and he obviously knew my story. At the time, I was the only nude photography he was doing. I enjoyed my time with him but knew it wasn’t going to amount to much. I can’t even remember us breaking up. There was never an argument or anything like that. I got busy at one point and we just stopped seeing each other.

When I look back at these pictures I started doing from about 1980 on, I just love them. It wasn’t that the prior ones were bad, but the photographers simply weren’t of the same quality. In a way, these pictures preserve not only my youth but also a time in history. It’s a documentation of life.

When I think about it, now that I’m in my fifties, I’ve spent literally half my life in front of a camera. This, of course, puts pressure on me. When I leave the house, just to go down the street, I refuse to let people see me looking bad. One of the reasons is you never know if someone is going to take your picture and publish it somewhere. I want to have my hair looking nice. I always wonder why people walk around in dirty clothes with hair looking like it hasn’t been washed in a week. I’ve even seen people shopping in their bedroom slippers. I guess some people feel when you get to a certain age there’s no reason to take care of yourself, but I feel you shouldn’t let yourself go. I’ve had some bouts with keeping my weight in check and I hate it, yet I never reach a point where I think, “Okay, so I’m overweight. Big deal. This is my ‘new normal.’” I don’t think this is being egotistical. You should keep it together. To have the entire world think you look good for your age makes you feel better about life in general.

Those three photographers spoiled me for anyone else. Working with them was a high point in my career and in my life. Even at shows I work today, people will walk up and ask me to sign those pictures. I get requests via my website for certain shots from the
Club
years. None of the pictures for
Club
at that time were hardcore. Today, there are all kinds of books that present nudes as art. But if it’s in an adult magazine, it’s regarded as pornography. If those very same pictures I did were taken out of those publications without anyone knowing where they came from, most people would say, “That’s a beautiful photo.” But since it’s in
Club,
they frown upon it. Perception is everything.

I will go to my grave believing the human body is a beautiful thing and these pictures hold up as art. Looking back at these shots I’m extremely proud of the work I’ve done.

Some of my
Club Magazine
and glamour shots from the 1980’s, courtesy of the fabulous Dennis Scott.