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 This collection of glossy shots marks the second birthday of the
near-legendary eponymous Web site founded by Missy Suicide (borrowing a
little hipster terminology from a Chuck Palahnuik novel in the process)
to promote her own pin-up photography, and to make a place where women
could "be themselves." The large format book is well designed and
finely printed, with over 150 full-color photos of Scarlett, Flux,
Fractal and the rest of the pierced, tattooed, leather-'n-lace-lovin'
gang.
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The bulk of the book consists of Missy's portraits of the girls, but a
section at the back allows the girls to speak for themselves through
diary extracts, their own photos and their answers to questions like
"How did you hear about SuicideGirls and what made you want to become
one?" As 25-year-old Le from San Francisco puts it, exposing herself in
various ways on the internet is both "a hobby and an art form." The
S-Girls are spirited, sans doute, and you have to applaud Missy for
making such a go of something she loves. But after a while, the tattoos
and pierced nipples do tend to blur into something of a sub-Courtney
Love mush. (And readers of a certain age won't be able to help
wondering if any of these bedroom performance artists have boned up on
Lora Logic, Poly Styrene and the much less generic-looking fem-punks of
a previous generation.) One diary extract gives the flavor of the
whole: "Fuckin' ex boyfriend. You suck. Your records suck. Think I'm
gonna throw 'em somewhere, in a garbage dump."
The SuicideGirls adult-entertainment website mixes the edginess,
smarts, and attitude of the best alternative music and culture sites
with an unapologetic, grassroots approach to sexuality. It is
"empowered erotica," in which women outside of mainstream culture
showcase their unique personal styles on their own pages, where they
put up sexy pinup-style photos of themselves, post a personal profile,
and keep online journals in which they discuss daily experiences (both
naughty and nice). In this way, they are in charge of their own image
and how they are represented. The Girls are from all over the world,
including the United States, Canada, England, Finland, and Sweden. In
addition to journal entries selected from the site and over 200 artful
X-rated color photos, the book contains an introduction by Missy
Suicide about how she got involved with this revolutionary culture and
started the website.
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- SuicideGirls Magazine: No. 1...
YOU WANT HOW MUCH FOR A MAGAZINE? Would it help if we called it a
periodical art book? What about a pin-up anthology? Fancy names aside,
we're getting all dead tree about things with the first ever issue of
the first ever SG magazine and we printed it on real nice paper in
Canada. Also did we mention it's ad free?
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- SuicideGirls: Beauty Redefined ...
Suicide Girls - Beauty Redefined explores the Suicide Girl phenomenon
from their start in 2001 to their websites one million unique weekly
visitors today. This giant tome provides a timely look at the
fascinating women who created and inhabit the SG community. With an
introduction by SG founder, Missy Suicide and images of hundreds of
SuicideGirls world-wide, this title shines a light on a new female
aesthetic - a look reminiscent of vintage Betty Page and Bunny Yeager
photos, but with a decisively 21st century edge. "There's no other
place in the media to see girls (like these) who are tremendously smart
and beautiful in their own way" says Missy, "Everywhere you look you
just see the super-thin, super-tall, bleach blonde Baywatch babe. There
are a lot of people out there who want to see a different kind of
beauty."
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- Naked Happy Girls...
As a collection of pictures of attractive women, Naked Happy Girls is
pleasing and a little unusual. While undoubtedly erotic, it avoids most
of the clichés of standard glamour photography. It remains voyeuristic
and feminists might condemn it as objectivizing, but it certainly isn't
pornographic by contemporary standards. The work is playful and even
cheerful, showing beautiful women in natural light. Ultimately though,
the book doesn't compare with more provocative and innovative nude
photography. There are some strong images, especially those in which
the subject looks directly and openly into the camera, because in
those, the women convey their own power, and show themselves as equal
to the photographer and the viewer.
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