No SG!

SO WHY DON’T YOU WORK FOR SUICIDE GIRLS?
YOU OBVIOUSLY KNOW LOTS OF TATTOED and ALTERNATIVE MODELS!
YOU WOULD BE PERFECT!

It’s not that I’m not flattered to be asked… it’s just that I can’t work with Suicide Girls because of their non-compete contract… and the low pay for photographers.

I’ve read the Suicide Girls contract, and they require that photographers (and models) agree to not work for a Suicide Girls competitor for a period of two years after their set is published. That really makes it tough on photographers who don’t make a lot of money and need to get their work published in as many places as possible. And they don’t really explain what a “competitor” is… I’d have to (in effect) ask their permission to sell my work to other sites for two years. Unfortunately that doesn’t work for me.

As for the pay…

I’m not sure what they pay models these days (I’ve heard $500 + more if your set is very popular) but (I’ve been told) that they are paying photographers $300 to shoot, edit, and then give up the copyrights to 80+ photos… which is really cheap for a huge multimillion dollar corporation like Suicide Girls. If it’s 80 photos, then it’s $3.75 per photo… and that’s IF they accept your set.

I might end up doing all that work for nothing and I still won’t be able to do anything with the photos. A more reasonable rate would be $1000 to $1200. My day rate (which includes rights) is $500 + $10 per photo for editing. With 80 photos that’s $1300.

It can take half an hour to an hour to properly touch up a photo and make the model look perfect… so with 80 photos you’re working for less than minimum wage… if you get paid at all.

Imagine working a job where you might or might not get paid at the end of the week and even if you do get paid it’s far less than the industry standard.

Don’t forget that they own your photos forever… they can resell them to other sites, publish them into books, etc… and neither you or I get any more money out of it. Sounds like a bad deal to me.

And as for getting exposure… the people who are looking at photos on SG aren’t thinking about the photographers! LOL. :)

So thank you again for thinking of me, but unless they raise their rates and get rid of their contracts, I can’t do it.