CYBERSPACE – YNOT Radio played host to legendary adult photographer Suze Randall on Wednesday when the former Playboy photographer joined hosts YNOTBob and LAJ on this week’s popular Hump Day Lunch webmaster radio show.In a light and entertaining interview that lasted around twenty minutes, Randall talked about how she got started as a model, later turned to photography, and her adventures with Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt.
According to Randall, she had never aspired to be a photographer before she got into modeling on a whim.
“Never thought of it at all. I was actually a nurse in London and I met my husband there and he was an aspiring writer,” Randall explained.
Her career in adult entertainment got started when she responded to an advertisement for nude models in a conservative time when pubic hair pictures were strictly off limits. “I had a lot of fun, and I was actually quite good,” Randall boasted. “I surprised myself.”
Nude modeling work eventually led to fashion modeling work.
“I gave up nursing and ended up modeling full time,” Randall said. “It was the swinging 60s and I thought, ‘Why not?’.”
Randall said that she found modeling to be fickle work with too many ups and downs for her liking.
“I thought of taking photographs of my girlfriends,” Randall explained. That eventually led to a job shooting nude pictures for the Sun newspaper in England. “Because it was women’s lib, I got a lot of press.”
After shooting for Penthouse and other publications, Randall finally found a model that helped her get her foot in the door at Playboy.
“I worked for Playboy for a couple of years. I learned a lot from them,” Randall said. “I got thrown out of there because I wrote a kiss and tell story about all the people I fucked up at the mansion. [Hugh] didn’t like that. He liked pretty girls, but he didn’t like it if they could write.”
According to Randall, working at Playboy could be a tiring experience for both the photographers and the models.
“To get a centerfold it would take so long that the girl was bored and tired at the end of the whole process, or they had a nervous breakdown. It was all too important,” Randall said with a chuckle. But she admitted that sometimes a difficult model is more manageable when she’s worn out. “You just keep working them until they get tired and relaxed and it eventually comes through.”
To the surprise of the Hump Day audience, Randall also said that Hustler publisher Larry Flynt had previously tried to “blackmail” Hugh Hefer with some unflattering pictures.
“When I was up at Hefner’s I met Larry Flynt, who was blackmailing Hefner at the time. Cause he had pictures of Hefner,” Randall said without further clarification. “So Hefner, hoping to buy him off, invited him up to one of those Sunday parties, and as they always do at Playboy, proceeded to ignore him. So I went and chatted with him and we got on really well, and I ended up shooting myself for Hustler. And typical Larry Flynt, he goes and puts it on the cover of Hustler, ‘Playboy photographer shows pink.’”
Randall is happy that her nude photos are still in circulation. “It’s quite good because people still think I look like that,” she said.
LAJ asked Randall about the qualities that make up an ideal model.
“Spirit,” Randall replied. “The sexuality and the spirit is so important. I mean obviously the face, the beauty … a great body is great, but you need a great face, great spirit. You can work the body, you don’t have to have a perfect body, but you have to have the spirit.”
What about shooting digital versus film?
“We’ve only just started shooting digital, and actually it’s quite exciting. It makes it a lot easier in a way because you can see what the hell you’re getting,” Randall explained. “At least with digital you can see what you get, so from that point of view the feedback is fantastic.”
And what about the internet? YNOTBob asked Randall how the internet has affected her career.
“The internet has been fantastic to me,” Randall replied. “It gave me the freedom, because until now the magazines, as great as they’ve been, you have to kiss ass the whole time.”
