Everyone knows Amelia G runs the Blue Blood empire and also does some of the photography and writing for it. Here on APN, we’ve featured photographs she has shot for Blue Blood many times and we’ve mentioned her writing once or twice. (You can also see the interview we did with Amelia G five years ago — Ed.) I write for APN and I have all the old Blue Blood print magazines from the 90’s in plastic bags with cardboard backing, so I thought I was pretty aware and I still found a lot on Amelia G’s new AmeliaG.com site to both inform and entertain me. In addition to running the business end of Blue Blood and working as an editor for many projects, Amelia G has had hundreds of photo sets published and thousands of articles. Amelia G has done writing and/or photography for all the major adult publishing houses including Playboy, Penthouse, Flynt, Crescent, Magna, and AVN, plus niche magazines including Marquis, On Our Backs, Skin Two, Tattoo Teasers, Fetish, Extreme Fetish, $pread, and of course Blue Blood. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Erotica, Best S/M Erotica, and Best Women’s Erotica and dozens more books. But she still took time out of her busy schedule to give APN this exclusive interview.

APN: Blue Blood magazine in print was really ground zero for jump-starting the whole altporn genre and you’ve managed to maintain a top ranking for Blue Blood for more than sixteen years. To what do you credit your remarkable success and longevity?

AG: Thanks. I always hope the universe will smile on me for hard work and doing the right thing, and sometimes it does. A big advantage Blue Blood had in coming to the web is that the magazine was always subscription-driven and we had free sites for the community for years before we launched our first membership site. We actually had paid members before we had even actually launched the first pay site because we tested out a banner rotation for a few minutes and people saw it. I really appreciate the support we’ve gotten over the years and try to really put a lot back into the scene and into having really great creative work on all my sites.

APN: Okay, so, in your bio on your new personal site, your thesis subject really jumped out at me. You wrote your thesis at Wesleyan University on vampire legends as a paradigm for aggressive human sexuality?

AG: I sure did. Kind of funny that it seemed sort of shocking, and outrageous, and possibly frivolous to be writing about that sort of topic, at a school like that, but it actually did turn out to be relevant to my job. The name Blue Blood is sort of a play on words with the blood for vampires and gothic spookyness and the blue meaning erotic as in blue movies, but the blue blood phrase overall connoting a certain tastefulness and strength. Especially in 1992, when I founded Blue Blood, it was very common for alt-identified people to feel like they had to accept second class citizen status. So the strength aspect is really important to the core manifesto for me. The most important message I would like readers or members to get from Blue Blood is that purple hair or tattoos or having kinky sex or otherwise living flamboyantly does not mean you are not entitled to the rewards of the larger society.

APN: Didn’t the magazine have some bloodplay in it as well?

AG: The very first issue of Blue Blood, my friend Fish wrote a how-to article for safe bloodplay. Fish is a tattoo artist now and he was a military medic then, so he’s educated on the subject, but we got so many angry letters about that article. Blue Blood magazine even showed condoms in shoots and the article was about how to do bloodplay safely, so I’m very safety conscious, but some people just do not understand that it is not the extremity of a sexual practice which makes it unsafe. Unfortunately, in the internet distribution channel, we’ve been forced to move away from anything with blood in it.

APN: How does publishing on the internet instead of in print change whether you can have bloodplay?

AG: A lot of people get all caught up with definitions of genre based on what is and is not shown, but what can be shown in media is very dependent on distribution channel. For example, it did not used to be possible to show penetration in a magazine and be distributed on any newsstands outside of adult bookstores. Online, penetration makes no difference in where something can be seen. By contrast, if a web site accepts credit cards for memberships, they are likely to run into difficulties having any blood content. We’ve had to remove photo sets which showed only topless nudity where the girl was playing with blood made of vanilla-flavored corn syrup and food coloring because it was deemed extreme violence. If you watch Skinemax or cable channels like that, you can’t see penetration, but every other flick is a horror-themed excuse to douse topless women with fake blood. So it is not really that some distribution channels allow more and some allow less; they are just different.

APN: So is publishing on the internet harder or easier than in print?

AG: I love magazines. I still contribute to print projects and still create print projects. I love getting to hold a finished magazine in my hand. But the wonderful thing about the internet is that it is possible to go directly to the people who get it, without having to go through some distributor who hasn’t cracked an adult magazine in twenty years and thinks having tattoos is something that only teenagers would do. Despite a few restrictions on things like bloodplay, I find the internet easier from a distro standpoint. I think it is harder from a community standpoint. Back in the all print days, there used to be a lot of events where publishers would get together and we all traded quarter page ads with each and that is less the case for web publishers in this demographic.

APN: How do you feel about how altporn has evolved?

AG: Well, for one thing, I prefer the expression counterculture erotica to altporn, but I think altporn has definitely become the term for subculture-infused erotic media. In some respects, things are much easier today because being offbeat and being naked on camera have both been really destigmatized most places. In some respects, things being easier means that there are a small percentage of people who decide they want to make altporn who don’t really have the sense of community or individuality which would once have definitely been there. Most people in it are cool, but it has become more difficult to recognize who I have things in common with now, because, for example, there are people who just dress a certain way to be accepted and they don’t really care about personal freedom or get what it is all about.

APN: Your personal pics section on AmeliaG.com is really funny and I spotted so many famous people with you in there. Is your life basically a twenty-four hour party where you go from Hummer limo to book reading to art show to nightclub to fab afterparty?

AG: When I actually do take a moment to go out on the town, I like to make it count. I’m really a workaholic, but I think a gallery of like fifteen shots of me holding a camera and seventy of me sitting at a computer would have been less entertaining than eighty-five of me having fun.

APN: My favorite part of your new AmeliaG.com site is the professional photography portfolio you have on there. I love that you have members of the Misfits, Genitorturers, and Marilyn Manson in there with altstars like Voltaire, Bella Vendetta, and my future wife April Flores and it somehow seems all of a piece. How do you choose who you are going to shoot?

AG: As an artist, it is really important to me that my work be seen, so I like to have an idea of where a shoot might be published. A few hundred people a week apply to appear on the various Blue Blood sites, including BlueBlood.com, BarelyEvil.com, GothicSluts.com, and RubberDollies.com in particular, and there is a submission form on BlueBloodPhoto.com. I, of course, publish other people’s photography even more often than my own on BlueBlood.com etc. and there are only so many hours in the day, but I do photograph select people from the Blue Blood apps. I do take commissions from publications, record labels, and such. In general, I most enjoy photographing people who have a certain spark, star quality, individuality, personal style, and passion for self-expression. Hotness is good, but there needs to be hotness with unique self-expression. After all, I think avoiding just conforming to someone else’s aesthetic is important to being alt.

APN: Thanks so much for your time. Congrats on the launch of AmeliaG.com. It looks fabulous, it is fun to look at, and it is really informative.

AG: Thank you for the interview and the kind words.

Xtra.ca “Canada’s leading source for gay and lesbian news” has some entertaining coverage of the recent fourth-annual Feminist Porn Awards, featuring video interviews with Madison Young, Jiz Lee, and NoFauxxx’s Courtney Trouble. Congratulations to Courtney for bringing home the Most Deliciously Diverse Cast award for Roulette, as well as all the talented winners who demonstrate what is great and creative and sexy in the alt world.

You can see more of Xtra’s video coverage on their YouTube channel.

If you are looking for some hot stuff to check out, here are the winners of the 2009 Feminist Porn Awards:

Movie of the Year:
Champion | Shine Louise Houston- Pink and White Productions

Indie Porn Pioneer:
Madison Young

Most Deliciously Diverse Cast:
Roulette | Courtney Trouble- Nofauxxx Productions

Sexiest Dyke Movie:
One Night Stand (Pour Une Nuit) | Emilie Jouvet – Hysterie Productions + Fatale Media

Hottest Kink Movie:
Perversions of Lesbian Lust Vol.1 | Madison Young – Madison Bound Productions

Steamiest Trans Scene:
Crash Pad Series 2- Unlocked | Shine Louise Houston – Pink and White Productions

Sexiest Straight Movie:
Intense Desires | Eli Cross – Lennox Films

Hottest Mature Couple’s Movie:
Bill and Desiree: Love is Timeless | Tony Comstock – Comstock Films

Most Sensual Softcore & Golden Beaver Award for Canadian Content:
Man of My Dreams | Mimi Balfour – Cleopatra Productions

Steamiest Educational Series:
Red Hot Touch Series | New World Sex Education

Heartthrob of the Year:
Dylan Ryan | For work in Strap-on Motel, Sex Mannequin, Crash Pad Series Volume 3, Champion, Perversions of Lesbian Lust: Volume 1 and Lesbian Life: Real Sex San Francisco.

Heartthrob of the Year:
Tyler Knight | For work in Chemistry 4 and Intense Desires

A while back we covered an update Blue Blood did for their BarelyEvil bad girls and trouble makers site which featured super sexy tattoo pin-up Superna showing off some beautiful buds. Although drug use is common in the alt community and marijuana policy debate has been heating up within the youth activist circles, this still seemed like a pretty bold layout.

It turns out that there is a huge dramatic story that goes along with this photographic series that can only now be fully released. Blue Blood boss Amelia G just posted a really interesting follow-up interview with Superna about her trials and experiences relating to the big bust of her ‘drug’ house and the subsequent arrest. It all sounds like a terrible thing to go through, but her attitude about it is enlightening. We also have a bonus free gallery from the shoot that is a little nakeder than the one Blue Blood just posted on their non-adult entertainment and community site to go along with the interview.

Rob Griffin from 420Girls know how to make something look like a good time. Brooke Banner usually just seems like a regular pornstar, but, in this 420Girls set, Rob Griffin captures so much personality. Brooke Banner looks totally fuckable and human on 420Girls. Not at all like the airbrushed porno girl she comes across like elsewhere. Even her tattoos look like she has more of them. I wonder if other sites she appears on airbrush her tattoos out normally. Whatever the case, 420Girls makes it look fun. I wish they updated more often, but I guess stoned people sometimes take a while to get around to things.

Lexi Belle always looks cute as a button to me, but I’ve never found her that alt, even though she has appeared in work from both BurningAngel and BlueBlood. I enjoy scenes and sets featuring her because she always seems to have a fresh energy to get into what is going on. Whether she is supposed to be being nerdy or party bad girl, she makes her sexual response come across new and not jaded. For 4/20, it seemed like today would be a good day to share these shots by Rob Griffin from 420Girls.

We recently reported on the current legal dispute between SuicideGirls and their long time staff photographer Philip Warner, otherwise known as Lithium Picnic. AltPorn.net wanted to extend our appreciation to Apnea for taking the time for this interview, in order to shed some light on the details of this situation.

Sorry the circumstances for this feature are somewhat less positive. We hate to see talented creative people spending their energy fighting for their livelihood. Can you explain for the people not already intimately involved, what precipitated the split, and ensuing $100,000 lawsuit, between Philip and SuicideGirls?

There’s a lot of speculation floating around that it had something to do with the rise of his career and popularity outside of SG and the fact that he was shooting many of the models from GodsGirls and other competitors for his personal projects. Missy sent him demands that he could not shoot SGs for anything outside of SG without their permission, citing his “affiliations” as the reason they could “no longer trust him”. He never breached the contract he was under, so he pushed back and told them that wasn’t in his contract and continued to shoot whoever her wanted.

Ultimately Philip was booted off of the site back in November for shooting me for apneatic.com and allegedly owning and running my site. SG did no fact checking and made no attempt to inquire about it or resolve this with him. He’s been shooting with me (and dozens of other models) since 2003 in standard “trade-for-prints” exchanges. He retains the copyright and the models are allowed to use the images, standard in the industry. I used images he shot on my paysite, he did not and does not have a direct relationship with my site.

As for the ownership claim, he helped me register the name for my site in 2003 before it was a paysite, I even had the URL of apneatic.com posted at the top of my SG profile. There were no issues with it at the time. After they kicked me off the site I decided to open a paysite of my own since alt modeling is one of the major ways I support myself in college. Philip just registered the name for me he did not materially participate in the business, and he said as much to Paul Loving in his reply. This was a clerical error and has been corrected.

Philip had a very specific clause in his contract that allowed him to shoot for “single girl personality based sites” since the new contract they asked him to sign would have been in default from the moment it was signed. He was already shooting on his own with other well known models with sites like Masuimi, Darenzia, Kumi, Scar, etc. I guess it took them eleven months to get angry about it? It doesn’t get more “single girl” than my site, I don’t even post affiliate galleries, it’s “all Apnea, all the time.”

I don’t think anything about this lawsuit makes sense. It seems to me that this is more about who has the deeper pockets and trying to keep him from opening his own site or working for a major competitor than it is about my site.

How long had Philip been working with SuicideGirls, and all told, how many photo sets had he done for them in total?

Our first set went live in November of 2003, since then he’s shot over seventy five sets for the site.

What other sorts of work did they also have him do in his role as staff photographer?

It was not in his job description, but he created and maintained a Suicidegirls Myspace Fan Page (not group) to showcase his SG photos and pimp his affiliate codes. He did this on his own with no input from SG before they recognized Myspace as a viable marketing channel. This was the first big SG presence on myspace. It had samples of his SG photography and links to SG with his affiliate codes. He spent hours a week reply and fielding emails to the model applications and once it got up to about 30,000 members they demanded he give it to them. He pushed back but was nice enough to give them the user name and password to send out bulletins and was doing it for them but they changed his info and tried to take it. He did a password change and explained that if they didn’t want him using the SG name and logo on his fan page he would be more than happy to change it to a Lithium Picnic fan group but then Sean called him screaming (I was sitting next to him, I could hear him screaming) threatening to sue him. He settled in an agreement to keep his codes and a certain amount of his photos on the page but shortly after they breached the agreement and got myspace to move all of the members to another page. He lost a great deal of promotion not to mention the income from the affiliate links they removed.

See for yourself, it’s been a ghost town since they cheated him: http://www.myspace.com/sggroup I suspect they will delete it soon due to the upcoming litigation. It’s been documented and screencapped.

We’ve seen other SuicideGirls staff photographers complain that they still shoot sets for the SuicideGirls organization essentially on spec, what was the process of shooting for them like from start to finish, or from booking to getting the check?

I think most everyone shoots on spec. Even if they ask a photographer to shoot someone there’s no guarantee they will take it. SuicideGirls has withheld his paychecks on multiple occasions until he would sign updated contracts, send in additional hi-res images , or would agree to new terms requiring additional work. His checks were usually paid much later than the terms specified in his agreements.

Reading over Philip’s December 11th letter to SuicideGirls’ attorney Paul Loving, Philip outlined the pre-existance of the general photographic style SuicideGirls currently publish, noting for example the pre-SG publication Blue Blood. Are the SuicideGirls staff and legal counsel seriously trying to claim some sort of copyright on modern street-fashion oriented nude pin-up photography? What is their rationale?

Your guess is as good as mine. In the Godsgirls case the tried to claim ownership of the color pink, so it wouldn’t surprise me.

There has been a lot of speculation on the topic of what exactly SuicideGirls actively considers competition, and this is important because they are known to advocate certain behaviour towards supposed competitors. Since both yourself and Philip have been working with them for so long, can you share some insight into exactly who and what they really consider competitive, from a policy perspective?

I don’t know. SG is so huge, I can’t imagine that any alt porn site could really threaten their business. I think in Philip’s situation, SG is just making an example out of him for shooting girls from other sites for his personal projects and for standing up to them as much as he did. This seems to be more about keeping him from making his own membership site or shooting for another big alt site than it is about them having $100,000 in real damages or being threatened by my site.

Given that SuicideGirls has a fairly widely accepted reputation for their comprehensive exclusionary, and some even say laughably overreaching, contracts, how surprised were you and Philip by the their action against you? Were they easier to work with early on, when you and Philip started working with them? What was it that motivated you to work with an organization notorious for doing just this sort of thing?

Sean asked us to join the site in 2003. There were no exclusive contracts back then, the rule was more like, “If you shoot for another site your sets won’t go live on SG as often.” I remember the day it happened, ex SG Anouck made a fuss about the rule because she was on Manic Jane or something like that, then staff gave her the boot and created the exclusivity rule. Lucky for me, all I ever signed was a model release in 2003 . It wasn’t until I was kicked off of the site in 2005 that the contracts were ever made. As far as being surprised about Philip being served papers, we weren’t surprised at all, just disappointed. We are not a threat to SG, we want nothing more than to be disassociated with them. In my opinion, this is all based on a foundation of greed and spite.

Is your site, Apneatic.com, going to stay live during the dispute, because we’re sure a lot of members and supporters, ourselves included, would really hate to see them get away with pressuring you to close it down over this.

My site isn’t going anywhere! In fact my web designer asked me yesterday if he should halt on the redesign of the site until the case blows over, but I told him to keep building. Philip is still working on his own projects too, as much as this has affected our lives, we’re still loving life and working on our own projects.

In a lot of your publicly posted explanations of the dispute, you state that the suit is over SG’s contractual objection to his alleged ownership and involvement in your site, Apneatic.com . But on November 22nd, he publicly announced on his Lithium Picnic Studios site, that he was about to add quite a few potentially competitive features. He stated that lithiumpicnic.com was gearing up to become a “membership” site with member blogs, member photos, forums, friends lists, along with photo and video updates and much more. The very next day after that announcement, SG issued their disputed “Creative Services Agreement” to Philip, which he claims to have not signed. Then, on November 24th, the day after they issued their “Creative Services Agreement”, he announced that he had left SuicideGirls to pursue other projects. Given the turn of events over those three days, it’s odd to read that the dispute is somehow over your site. Is it fair to think that maybe the dispute is more about a preemptive move on their part to protect themselves against what would obviously be a more competitively featured venture than just your solo project?

He was kicked off SG with no explanation. After 3 years of hard work and promoting SG he was booted from the site without warning, the girls were notified that sets from him were no longer going to be accepted, and his 1,500+ member fan group was deleted. Neither he or the members were offered any explanation. His emails and IMs to SG staff went unanswered. Missy blocked his IMs from three different accounts. All he requested was an explanation and an opportunity to discuss what was happening. About a week later he got the breach document from their attorneys and the demand for $100,000. In response to the flood of emails and inquires and in an attempt to save face he made the simple statement that he was no longer working with SG and was moving on. They are still trying to hold him to a contract that prohibits him from and “disparaging remarks” he was advised by his attorney to keep it simple.

As far as competitive features are concerned, the bottom line is that it is not a paysite. He plans to someday open a site with beautiful nude photos in the style he was shooting before and during his time with SG, but the site will probably be based more on the photography and lighting diagrams and the technical aspects. A place where photographers could join and check out lighting diagrams and talk shop about cameras and stuff. He is always flooded with emails from new photographers asking his advice on stuff, so he figured he might as well start getting paid for it! I think it’s a wonderful idea. No, he never had any intention of opening an SG “girl based” competitor site. We’re leaving that fish for Godsgirls and DeviantNation to fry. But to answer your question, I don’t think this has much to do at all with me or my site, that was just the only half-excuse they could use to sue him since he never really violated his contract.

Tell us about the general public response you’ve been getting so far to the news of this suit.

We’ve been overwhelmed and renewed by the show of support and outrage. We’ve been especially moved by the public and private show of support from SG members, models, and even certain staff. It’s very clear as day that their argument is flimsy, unsubstantiated and malicious. It has never been my intent to persuade anyone to hate Suicidegirls, I wouldn’t wish that kind of energy upon anyone. I just want people to be informed and I want to be left alone. All of that projection is still helping their business. I haven’t visited the site in many moons; if people really didn’t like the site, I wish they would just stop going and stop talking about it. Then maybe Suicidegirls will either quietly go away and stop suing everyone.

Recently APN got word that a new affiliate program called AltPornBucks had just launched, with a content focus specifically on the AltPorn niche. Primarily, it is the affiliate sales site for Blaise Christie’s new Alt identified ElectroFilms.com. We thought we’d take a few minutes with their Program Manager, JC, as well as adult filmmaker Blaise Christie, to find out what they are all about.

We couldn’t help but notice that on the front page of your site, you claim to be “the first real webmaster program that focuses 100% on the AltPorn niche.” Can you please define what you feel AltPorn is? What makes something AltPorn, from your viewpoint?

JC: I can only define for you what I perceive AltPorn to be at this moment because the truth is since the niche is still in its infancy the definition will evolve as the genre does. I think to box AltPorn into one solid definition would kill what AltPorn is…which is a form of art that defies boundaries and stereotypes. At its current stage, I feel AltPorn is defined as everything and anything mainstream bubblegum porn is not. Alt strays away from the conventional blonde hair, fake breasts, and airbrushed bodies of current porn stars and veers towards a more realistic view of the art of love. Some people perceive it to be defined by tattoos, gothic/emo attire, and “normal everyday” girls. I think society as a whole tends to want to define something, to place it into a clear-cut category up so they can make sense of it. This is exactly what AltPorn doesn’t want to become.

I believe AltPorn to be somewhat of a mix, but the main pieces to Alt that will not change is a tendency to use everyday girls and guys who define themselves with attitude and their own sense of style. They don’t need to have piercings, dyed hair or tattoos. They just need to be non-conformist who march to their own beat. The truth is the only clear cut rule to determine if content is AltPorn, is to decipher whether it looks like mainstream porn i.e. something you’ve seen before that’s just been repackaged so to speak, if that’s the case, then it’s not alt, it’s not art.

I find directors in the AltPorn niche to be innovators who follow the starving artist approach and produce content for the love of art. Blaise Christie, director for ElectroFilms, describes it to be a fast paced environment where a community is coming together to create something larger then themselves. Blaise notes most of the talent he has shot is eager to shoot and many are just excited to be a part of the revolution that is AltPorn.

Your site mentions that Blaise has shot some of the hottest altporn talent in Southern California. Who would you say is hot in Alt right now?

JC: Some of the hottest AltPorn female talent in Southern California that Blaise has shot would include Dana DeArmond, Avy Lee Roth, and Veronica Jett. In terms of male talent I think Icarus would top the list.

In your claim to be the first to launch, you also mentioned that you beat out your future competitors, which you say are slated to launch later this year. What competitive affiliate programs are you referring to?

JC: Vivid Alt has been testing the market the past year and just celebrated their one year anniversary. I believe it is logical to assume Vivid is gearing up for a paysite and affiliate program to launch in the near future. Various talent has alluded to NaughtyAmerica developing an AltPorn site which was to be entitled NaughtyAlt. However, their MySpace profile leads us to believe NaughtyFlipSide will be the new name.

It seems like you are taking a fairly competitive stance. What programs would you say are partially, or not 100%, in the AltPorn niche?

JC: With the niche growing in all directions so rapidly one cannot say which programs are Alt and which are not. What we can say is that our program will NOT be a mixture of mainstream and AltPorn. Being the first to launch, AltPornBucks has been an innovator in this niche and we are looking to remain that way with both our affiliate program and our paysites such as ElectroFilms.com. We want to continue to produce original content that is not only unlike mainstream porn, but unlike our own past work as well. The future of our program will be not only be based on our ability to challenge other content providers in the AltPorn niche, but to challenge ourselves by consistently delivering fresh new original content.

Many, if not most, of the sites in the genre have affiliate promotion options in place already. Established programs like Blue Blood’s SpookyCash has been around for years and features quite a few sites, all of which could be easily classified in the Alt genre. Can you explain your perspective on what qualifies you as the first to focus 100% on the niche?

Blaise Christie: AltpornBucks just claims to b the first affiliate program to officially call itself “altporn” since the word was made mainstream by vivid. maybe theres other ones, idk, and i dont care. its more a marketing gimmick for affiliates. idk if my contents altporn, it just seemed like da best category to throw it under. wala!

Sultry model and renaissance woman Sun Karma has posted an interesting interview with fetish model Ariel X. Models and aspiring models will find plenty of meaty info in this one:

Whats in the future for you? Do you plan on doing this for another 10 years or is this a transition for you? Often, models have a ‘life’ expectancy in this biz (age wise)..how do you feel about that limitation or does it limit you at all?
I don’t think that in 10 years I will be modeling. I’ve been wanting to get into photography because i want to take pictures of naked girls and I love helping people so I would love to help with model promotions. I actually run a computer store right now, so if something were to happen to me tomorrow that would force me to stop modeling I have something I can fall back on. That’s another piece of advice. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, always have a plan B.

Read the entire interview at The Blog @ OP »

Few individuals in our community need an introduction less than Amelia G. She and her partner-in-crime Forrest Black are the closest thing we have to a mother and father of altporn as we know it. Their writing, photography, publishing and marketing efforts established a model that has influenced nearly everyone working in the genre, and their dedication community building and support has allowed hundreds of creative individuals to connect with one another.

[The Interview]