“A little to the left. Hold your arm out. Point your toe.”
It takes a lot of focus for a professional photographer directing a mostly nude model to strike just the right pose, but the pay-off could mean landing the centerfold and cover shots of Playboy, Penthouse or Hustler magazines.
At just 35 years of age, Malibu resident Holly Randall is already the best known of a new generation of glamour photographers. In the latest of a long line of adult magazine covers, last month she shot the cover of the 8th annual Penthouse “Badass” issue, along with two centerfolds, an art nude collaboration with rock guitarist Dave Navarro, and an article featuring her photos of exotic women and a tiger.
Holly is the daughter of Suze Randall, whom she refers to as the “legendary men’s magazine maven.” During her groundbreaking career, Suze became the first female staff photographer for both Playboy and Penthouse back in the ‘70s.
Suze got her start in the business by occasionally posing topless for extra money while working as a nurse-midwife in her native Great Britain. She eventually got behind the camera and began taking photos of her girlfriends.
She landed some mainstream work as a fashion model , including Vogue magazine. “I thought I was going to be famous, but nobody recognized me [in Vogue], so I decided to take up photography and have some control of my destiny in the male dominated profession,” Suze said in an interview with The Malibu Times.
“When I started taking nude photos, it was frowned upon. Nice people didn’t do this,” she said. “But I learned to take my own pictures, so I had the power and control and didn’t have to ask anyone for a job… you have to be charming and tougher than the guys.”
“[Adult photography] was exciting in my time because you were pushing the envelope, fleeing from the vice squad – it was thrilling!”
After Randall discovered pin-up model Lillian Muller, Playboy magazine came calling. They balked at bringing her on as Muller’s photographer, but relented when she threatened to give her photos to Penthouse instead. Playboy hired her in 1975 under the supervision of a female editor and Muller became the 1976 “Playmate of the Year.”
A job at Hustler followed, then a position at Penthouse where she photographed more than 20 “Penthouse Pets.” Suze, her husband Humphry Knipe and their three children bought a 30-acre ranch just outside Malibu city limits in the ‘90s.
The biggest change in the industry over the past 40 years has been the migration of adult content to the Internet. Up until that time, a small community of people controlled the industry and it was very difficult to break into, Holly explained. The advent of the Internet let just about anyone get into the business.
“I had the largest library of anyone when adult content first got big on the Internet,” the elder Randall said. She started her members-only website Suze.net in 1998 with thousands of photos she’d taken during the span of her career, and “that’s what bought the ranch,” she laughed.
“The internet was an amazing new professional market. Then it got too big, the market was flooded, and there was a weeding out period of sleazy people and bad content,” Holly said.
The migration of adult content to the Internet was actually empowering for women, she noted.
“It really made a big difference for the models. Before, a model needed to have a director with a distribution company, or a magazine. Now, they connect directly to their fans and control their own careers.“
Holly got started by assisting her mother after she finished photography school and UCLA. Both mother and daughter are emphatic that most female models prefer being photographed by another woman.
“A lot of the models have told me I’m one of their favorites,” Holly said. “I respect the girls and some of the male photographers don’t.”
Mother and daughter have actually worked a variety of venues and platforms. Holly has 13,000 Instagram followers and 135,000 Twitter followers, hosts Playboy-TV’s “Adult Film School,” and won the 2014 Xbiz “Best Photo Site” award. Suze directed dozens of adult films and gets involved with politics and the equestrian community. She’s still recovering from serious injuries after a recent horse kick in the face.
“Only my horses can keep me in my place!” Suze said.
