# Suze Randall
**Suze Randall** (born 1946) is an English photographer, model, and director of erotic films who became the first woman to shoot a full-frontal spread for *Playboy* and the first female staff photographer for both *Playboy* and *Hustler*[1](https://www.nndb.com/people/896/000044764/) • [2](https://playgirl.com/archives/playgirl-portfolio-suze-randall/) • [3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). She later turned the rights to her photographic archive into the subscription website suze.net, making her an early entrepreneur in online erotica[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1946, Worcestershire, England[1](https://www.nndb.com/people/896/000044764/) |
| Signature first | First woman to shoot a full-frontal layout for *Playboy*, published August 1975 with model Lillian Müller on the cover[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) |
| Staff positions | First female staff photographer at *Playboy* (1975–1977) and at *Hustler* (1977–1979)[2](https://playgirl.com/archives/playgirl-portfolio-suze-randall/) |
| *The Sun* | The first woman to sell her nude photographs to the British tabloid for its Page 3 feature[4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/) |
| Memoir | *Suze: The Girl Who Clicked on Both Sides of the "Playboy" Camera* (1977), written with her husband Humphry Knipe[1](https://www.nndb.com/people/896/000044764/) |
| Suze.net | Archive of about 80,000 photographs; grew to 12,000 subscribers paying $24.95 a month[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) |
| Family | Husband Humphry Knipe; daughter Holly Randall, also an erotic photographer[1](https://www.nndb.com/people/896/000044764/) • [5](https://www.xbiz.com/features/279751/wia-profile-holly-randall) |
## Early life and entry into modeling
Randall grew up in working-class [Worcestershire](https://www.edgepedia.org/worcestershire), the daughter of a physical education teacher and a nurse[4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/) • [3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). At 22 she was working as a nurse at a London teaching hospital, St George's Hospital, while studying for her midwifery degree and sharing an Earls Court flat with seven other nurses[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003048/bio/). Answering an underground newspaper advertisement offering nude modeling work at up to £100 a day, about ten times her weekly nurse's wage, she appeared in the London tabloid *Mayfair*[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) • [4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/).
The Magnum photographer David Hurn, whose room the couple rented near Hyde Park, encouraged her to model with her clothes on and placed her at the women's weekly *Petticoat* magazine, leading to catalog work and a feature in British *Vogue*[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) • [4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/). When the *Vogue* spread appeared she was barely recognizable in it, and a brief acting appearance as a housekeeper in [Éric Rohmer](https://www.edgepedia.org/eric-rohmer)'s 1972 film *Chloe in the Afternoon* did not lead anywhere[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). Broke again, she used the [Nikon](https://www.edgepedia.org/nikon) camera she had bought on Bond Street to photograph her model friends topless, and sold the pictures to *The Sun* for its [Page 3](https://www.edgepedia.org/page-3) feature, becoming the first woman to sell her nude photographs to the paper[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) • [4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/).
Her advantage as a newcomer was her rapport with models, many of whom would undress for a woman but not for a man. The tabloids nicknamed her "rebel camera-girl Suze"[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). "You're only as good as your model feels," she told the journalist Hannah Ewens; her nursing training, she said, gave her a bedside manner and comfort with people without their clothes[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) • [2](https://playgirl.com/archives/playgirl-portfolio-suze-randall/).
## Playboy and Hustler
Randall had taken snapshots of the Norwegian model Lillian Müller, which *Playboy*'s London representative sent to Chicago. [Hugh Hefner](https://www.edgepedia.org/hugh-hefner) flew the 29-year-old Randall and Müller to the magazine's main office in 1975, but the staff ignored her as a photographer. She threatened to sell the images to *Penthouse*, and the magazine relented[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). Her photographs of Müller ran in the August 1975 issue, with Müller holding a rose between her legs on the cover under the headline "Scandinavian Modern"; the first full-frontal *Playboy* spread shot by a woman[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/).
She was not the first woman to shoot for *Playboy*: that is believed to belong to [Bunny Yeager](https://www.edgepedia.org/bunny-yeager), who photographed [Bettie Page](https://www.edgepedia.org/bettie-page) for the magazine in the 1950s[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). Randall instead became the magazine's first female staff photographer, working exclusively for *Playboy* from 1975 to 1977 and frequently invited to the [Playboy Mansion](https://www.edgepedia.org/playboy-mansion), a privilege generally withheld from the hired help[2](https://playgirl.com/archives/playgirl-portfolio-suze-randall/) • [3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). The magazine's West Coast photography editor, Marilyn Grabowski, trained her in styling and draping[4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/).
**The break with Hefner.** At a Mansion party arranged by Hefner, she met *Hustler* founder [Larry Flynt](https://www.edgepedia.org/larry-flynt), who suggested she photograph herself to promote her forthcoming book. She shot herself for *Hustler* in vulva-exposed "pink" shots, and *Hustler* ran the coverline "Playboy photographer shows pink"[4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/). Hefner, according to her account, marched her out of the Mansion and she never returned[4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/). Flynt gave her a three-year contract as *Hustler*'s first female staff photographer, from 1977 to 1979, during which she became one of the few people who would stand up to the publisher; the relationship ended in another falling-out[2](https://playgirl.com/archives/playgirl-portfolio-suze-randall/) • [4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/). She also directed erotic films, including *Kiss and Tell* (1980), and photographed for *Penthouse*, *High Society*, and *Playgirl*[2](https://playgirl.com/archives/playgirl-portfolio-suze-randall/).[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/)
The 1977 memoir *Suze: The Girl Who Clicked on Both Sides of the "Playboy" Camera*, written with Humphry Knipe, drew Hefner's anger when she promoted it, and it later went out of print with second-hand copies selling for hundreds of pounds[1](https://www.nndb.com/people/896/000044764/) • [4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/).
## Owning the archive and Suze.net
Her break with the magazines had an unforeseen consequence. As a freelancer she retained ownership of her photographs, unlike salaried male colleagues; when Penthouse went bankrupt, founder [Bob Guccione](https://www.edgepedia.org/bob-guccione) owed her about $70,000 and paid her instead with the rights to all of her photographs, and she negotiated a similar arrangement with *High Society*[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). When the internet arrived, she and Knipe launched suze.net, an online archive of roughly 80,000 of her images[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/).
The site quickly reached 12,000 subscribers paying $24.95 a month. The two accounts of its peak revenue disagree: Elle reports $400,000 a year from the site alone in its heyday, while Vice reports $400,000 a month at its peak; both figures come from interviews with the couple[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) • [4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/). Their daughter [Holly Randall](https://www.edgepedia.org/holly-randall) dropped out of the Brooks Institute of Photography in 2000 to help run the business and began shooting for it before becoming a director in her own right[5](https://www.xbiz.com/features/279751/wia-profile-holly-randall).
## Legacy
Randall is widely described as a pioneer for women behind the camera in adult media, though she remained largely unknown outside the industry[5](https://www.xbiz.com/features/279751/wia-profile-holly-randall) • [4](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/). She was inducted into the AVN Awards Hall of Fame[1](https://www.nndb.com/people/896/000044764/), and appeared in the 2017 Netflix documentary series *Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On*[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/). She retired from photography after a horse kick cost her the sight in her left eye, and reissued her memoir through a [Kickstarter](https://www.edgepedia.org/kickstarter) campaign in the early 2020s[3](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/) • [7](https://www.xbiz.com/news/278258/pioneering-photographer-suze-randalls-memoir-to-be-reissued-through-kickstarter-campaign).
## References
1. [Suze Randall, NNDB](https://www.nndb.com/people/896/000044764/)
2. [Playgirl Portfolio: Suze Randall, Playgirl (November 1, 2024)](https://playgirl.com/archives/playgirl-portfolio-suze-randall/)
3. [How Playboy's Unsung Female Photographer Broke Into the Boys Club, Elle](https://www.elle.com/culture/a43752/playboys-female-photographer/)
4. [The Wild Life of Suze Randall, Playboy's Legendary Photographer, Vice (June 5, 2018)](https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-wild-life-of-suze-randall-playboys-legendary-photographer/)
5. [WIA Profile: Holly Randall, XBIZ](https://www.xbiz.com/features/279751/wia-profile-holly-randall)
6. [Suze Randall – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003048/bio/)
7. [Pioneering Photographer Suze Randall's Memoir to Be Reissued Through Kickstarter Campaign, XBIZ](https://www.xbiz.com/news/278258/pioneering-photographer-suze-randalls-memoir-to-be-reissued-through-kickstarter-campaign)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Broadcasting and journalism › Periodicals and publishing › Magazines › Magazine titles by genre › Adult, gossip, and supermarket tabloid magazines › Adult-magazine publishers and publishers' people*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license