සාමාන්‍ය මෝස්‌තර නිරූපණ ශිල්පයෙන් බැහැර වූ විශේෂයක් ලෙස Alternative Modeling හඳුන්වන්නට පුළුවන්. බොහෝ විට මෙහි නිරත වන්නන් ස්වරූපයෙන් සාමාන්‍ය නිරූපණ ශිල්පියන්ට ශිල්පිනියන්ට වඩා වෙනස් වනවා. බොහෝ විට කේශ සැකසුම්, කේශ වර්ණ මෙන්ම tattoo සහ piercing වලින් මේ අය සිය පෙනුම හැඩ ගන්වා ගනු ලබනවා. Alternative pin-up ගණයේ නිරූපිකාවන් සඳහාම ගොඩනැගුනු අන්තර්ජාලය පාදක ප්‍රජාවක්(Online Community) ලෙස Suicide Girls හඳුන්වන්නට පුළුවන්.
2001දී සෙලීනා මූනි සහ ෂෝන් සුහුල් විසින් ආරම්භකරන ලද Suicide Girls අමෙරිකාවේ පොර්ට්ලන්ඩ් ප්‍රදේශය පාදක කරගෙන බිහිවූවක්. සෙලීනා නැත්නම් ස්පූකි චයාරූපශිල්පය හදාරා සිටි අතර ඇගේ මිතුරියන්ගේ නිරූපන චායාරූප යොදාගනිමින් මෙම ව්‍යාපෘතිය ආරම්භ කළා. සාමාන්‍ය වෙබ් අඩවියකින් වෙනස්ව පණිවුඩ පුවරු(Message Boards) සහ බ්ලොග්කරණයද යොදාගනිමින් වඩා ආකර්ශනීය මුහුණුවරකින් ඉදිරිපත්කල මෙය කෙටිකලකින් ම තරුණ පරපුර අතර ජනප්‍රිය වුනා.
නිරූපන ශිලිපිනියන් ලෙස කලඑළි බසින්නට බලා සිටි බොහෝ සුන්දර යුවතියන්ට මෙය තෝතැන්නක් වුනා මෙන්ම ඉන් ඔවුනට සැලකිය යුතු ආදායමක් උපයා ගැනීමටද Suicide Girls අවස්තාව ලබා දී තිබෙනවා. මෙහි නිරූපිකාවන් බොහෝවිට වෙනස් ආකාරයේ කොන්ඩා වර්ණ, tattoo සහ piercing ආදියෙන් හැඩ වුවන් වනවා. මෙහිදී ඔවුන් විසින් යම් තේමාවන්ට අදාලව ගත චායාරූප පෙළ ඉදිරිපත් කලයුතු වෙනවා.මෙම චායාරූප පෙළක් පින්තුර 40-60 ප්‍රමාණයකින් සමන්විය යුතු අතර ආරම්භයේදී සම්පූර්ණ ඇඳුමෙන් පටන් ගෙන අවසානයේ සම්පූර්ණ නිරුවතින් අවසන් කල යුතුයි.
අද වන විට මිලියන 5ට අධික ප්‍රමාණයක් මාසිකව නරඹන වෙබ් අඩවියක් ලෙස මෙය ජනප්‍රියව තිබෙනවා. මුදල් ගෙවා සාමාජිකත්වය ලබාගන්න අයට පමණක් මෙහි නිරූපිකාවන්ගේ චායාරූප සහ වීඩියෝ නැරඹිය හැකි වනවා. අදවන විට ඇඟලුම් සන්නමයක් මෙන්ම කෙටි චිත්‍රපට, මුද්‍රිත මාධ්‍ය ලෙසද Suicide Girls ලොව පුර ප්‍රචලිතව පවතිනවා.
Zest Girls අපට Suicide Girls නිර්මාතෘවරිය වන සෙලීනා මූනි නොහොත් Missy Suicide හා සම්මුඛ සාකච්ඡාව ලබා ගන්නට හැකි වීම මහත් භාග්‍යයක් ලෙස හඳුන්වන්නට පුළුවන්. සිය කාර්ය බහුල බව නොතකා ඇය දැක්වූ සහය මහත් සේ අගය කරමු.එය ඉංග්‍රීසි බසින්ම පහත දක්වා ඇත.
01) According to us and the whole world, “Suicide Girls” is the Number 01 platform for alternative models all around the globe. According to your view, what is “Suicide Girls”? What is the concept behind it?
I am notoriously bad at summarizing what SuicideGirls is because it is so many things, it’s bigger than the sum of any of its parts but I’m going to try to smash its original mission into one sentence.
I started SuicideGirls in 2001 as an online social network that brought together people who felt like outsiders in their real-life communities to celebrate the unique beauty of girls who chose to commit “social suicide” by choosing not to fit in.
02) His wife’s cheating was able to turn Hugh Hefner’s gentle conservative life into reverse and give birth to the brand “Play Boy”. Any special story behind this amazing project, the community too?
The quick-ish answer was that I was not well suited to the sexism of corporate America and my life was kind of stagnating so I blew it up and moved back to my hometown. Along the way, I came across Betty Page photos that were shot by Bunny Yeager. There was something so magical about how confident and comfortable she was when she was shot by another woman. It resonated so strongly with me in my fragile post-life-bomb state. When I got to Portland I started photographing my friends who I thought were some of the most beautiful girls in the world with the same sort of respect and beauty in pin-up style photos. There was something so striking that would happen when their close would come off, their faces would light up and the tension in their bodies would visibly decrease. I knew that I was on to something. When I met with my friend Sean we crafted the idea for a community based around the photos where people could connect and support each other. A place where the girls could share their lives in their own words as well as through their images.
03) Why “Suicide Girls”? Any special reason to choose this kind of name?
SuicideGirls is about committing social suicide and proudly choosing not to fit in. Society, advertising, corporations benefit from our insecurities. In order to succeed ads have to threaten our sense of self. To love yourself is defiant. To embrace your body is rebellion. To do so confidently while celebrating every woman’s unique beauty is a revolution. There is a quote by Junot Diaz that really resonates with me
If you want to make a human being a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.
I grew up feeling very monstrous and I didn’t want anyone else to ever feel that way.
04) What was “Suicide Girls” first step? Who was your first Suicide Girl?
The first SuicideGirl was my neighbor, Rose. She was incredibly brave to let me photograph her and her joy and confidence reflected in the images encouraged me and let me know that I was on to something that would be bigger than myself.
05) Please, can you tell us about the current success of your “Suicide Girls” family?
We have over 3000 official SuicideGirls from around the world, every continent including Antarctica. We have hundreds of thousands of hopefuls and we receive over 50,000 applications from women who would like to become SuicideGirls every year. We just launched the ability for the hopefuls and SuicideGirls to earn tips in support of their vision and photos as well as adding a second set of the day to the site, doubling the opportunity to recognize the amazing sets that are being contributed every day to the site.
06) What are the differences between “Suicide Girls” and other modeling communities?
SuicideGirls images are designed to showcase how the model feels sexiest and most beautiful about herself. Whereas 99% of professional photography is about showcasing how the photographer frames out the world.
07) You guys introduced your project as a website. Now you have started to expand it to different areas. Please let us know about them.
We have books, movies, a burlesque tour, merchandise, a comic book. We have been incredibly fortunate to be able to bring our wildest dreams to life.
08) Please tell us about the success of the SuicideGirls Blackheart Burlesque Tour 2018.
With the website I wanted to update the classic pin-up photos with modern girls and treat the models with respect and highlight their unique beauty. We wanted to do the same with Burlesque. We wanted to take the sexy spirit of classic burlesque and put a modern sexy fun twist on it. We wanted to create a show that spoke to our community so it is all pop culture referential, video games, movies, comic books, tv themed. It is a dirty, nerdy, sexy, fun time that brings people together.
Going to a Blackheart Burlesque Show is really an amazing experience full of such positive energy that it could change your life, literally.
I) Sunny Holiday went to the Burlesque show in 2013 as an attendee. She was working in government for the state of New York. She was so inspired by the show that she got on stage during an audience participation portion of the show and thought about the feeling of being on stage for the next several months. The next time we held auditions she flew to Los Angeles to try out for the troupe, she made it and now is one of the hosts of the show. She has traveled around the country and around the world performing with us and hasn’t missed the life of a bureaucrat once.
II) A boy in Oklahoma City decides to attend the Burlesque show two years ago with his friend. They enjoyed the show but he couldn’t take his eyes off the girl who had the seat in front of his. She was there with a girlfriend. He worked up the courage to talk to her at the end of the show. Two years later when the show returned to Oklahoma City he asked her to marry him at the show.
09) Any upcoming events for 2019?
We hope to do a European tour, expand features on the website, we have a new movie we are working on and I would love to find time to reboot the comic series. I would also love to have time to go meet girls around the world who participate in the SuicideGirls community and hear their stories.
