Array Seka - Inside Seka

It was intimidating for me to take my clothes off in front of pretty women. Joanie looked like she should have been in front of the camera; she was just striking. Like Suze, she was very vocal and physical. But unlike Suze, who sat in her chair most of the time, and Dennis who was very quiet, slower paced, and methodical, Joanie would be up on six to eight foot ladders shooting down on you. Or she’d be on the floor or shooting from around a corner. Her body would be as contorted and twisted up as the person in front of the camera. You can always identify one of her pictures by the way they are posed. I don’t think I ever hurt as bad as after the first day I shot with her. She’d like to get you all scrunched and twisted up, and you’d think, “How in God’s name is this going to look?” But they were always great photographs. Her husband was in charge of this cone-shaped light she called her “pussy light.” This was back in the days when women still had hair on their genitalia. She’d put a little bit of oil on your pubes and he knew just how to hold the light to get just the right amount of illumination there. You never heard him say a whole lot of anything. I truly believe he didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, like an onlooker or anything like that. He was very much a gentleman.

They were all totally professional. They never came on to their subjects. I eventually did date Dennis, though. One night he said, “Why don’t you come on over? I’ll order some dinner and go through the pictures.” We always liked each other and there was a good chemistry there and things just happened. I loved him to death. He was a nice man. But I don’t think either of us was ever in love with the other. It was something safe. I knew what he did and he obviously knew my story. At the time, I was the only nude photography he was doing. I enjoyed my time with him but knew it wasn’t going to amount to much. I can’t even remember us breaking up. There was never an argument or anything like that. I got busy at one point and we just stopped seeing each other.

When I look back at these pictures I started doing from about 1980 on, I just love them. It wasn’t that the prior ones were bad, but the photographers simply weren’t of the same quality. In a way, these pictures preserve not only my youth but also a time in history. It’s a documentation of life.

When I think about it, now that I’m in my fifties, I’ve spent literally half my life in front of a camera. This, of course, puts pressure on me. When I leave the house, just to go down the street, I refuse to let people see me looking bad. One of the reasons is you never know if someone is going to take your picture and publish it somewhere. I want to have my hair looking nice. I always wonder why people walk around in dirty clothes with hair looking like it hasn’t been washed in a week. I’ve even seen people shopping in their bedroom slippers. I guess some people feel when you get to a certain age there’s no reason to take care of yourself, but I feel you shouldn’t let yourself go. I’ve had some bouts with keeping my weight in check and I hate it, yet I never reach a point where I think, “Okay, so I’m overweight. Big deal. This is my ‘new normal.’” I don’t think this is being egotistical. You should keep it together. To have the entire world think you look good for your age makes you feel better about life in general.

Those three photographers spoiled me for anyone else. Working with them was a high point in my career and in my life. Even at shows I work today, people will walk up and ask me to sign those pictures. I get requests via my website for certain shots from the Club years. None of the pictures for Club at that time were hardcore. Today, there are all kinds of books that present nudes as art. But if it’s in an adult magazine, it’s regarded as pornography. If those very same pictures I did were taken out of those publications without anyone knowing where they came from, most people would say, “That’s a beautiful photo.” But since it’s in Club, they frown upon it. Perception is everything.

I will go to my grave believing the human body is a beautiful thing and these pictures hold up as art. Looking back at these shots I’m extremely proud of the work I’ve done.

Living in downtown Chicago, I was the toast of the town. In the mid-eighties there was hot nightlife and no matter where I went, I didn’t have to wait for tables or on lines. I was invited to all the new nightclubs and didn’t pay for a drink or a meal. I was having a ball.

I even hired a PR person. Pornography was such a hot topic and a lot of the attention given to me was about my case. I had the balls to use the RICO Act and won, so I was continually doing TV talk shows from L.A. to New York. Meanwhile, the mail order business was doing very well and I was still working at Club. For once, life didn’t have any rough spots.

There was a nightclub called Limelight that had a big opening in Chicago, which was hyped for a couple of months. Everybody wanted to get into the event. Special invitations went out to certain people to enter first, because there were lines down the street. There were tons of limos. It was an old Shriners Hall, which was kind of gothic looking in a way. Neat rooms. VIP areas. I went and it was absolutely one of the craziest nights ever in Chicago. As the doors opened, the flashbulbs start going off. There were so many flashes you couldn’t see anything. It took like forty minutes to walk up the stairs because I was literally blinded. My friend Ronnie, who was my hairdresser at the time, was with me and we didn’t get home until five o’clock in the morning.

Champagne was flowing like water. Anybody who was anyone was there. Oprah Winfrey, all of Chicago’s pro athletes. It didn’t matter which team: the White Sox, the Cubs, the Bears, and the Bulls. Even other club owners were coming in. Restaurant owners. Magazine editors. And an awful lot of networking. It was overwhelming because everybody wanted to talk to me.

I had never really experienced anything like this. I was used to autograph signings and appearances, but this was different because these were press people who could take me to other levels in my career. I was proud that I didn’t have anyone telling me what to say or what to wear. I was on my own now and it felt like the first time leaving home without answering to anyone.

I also went to the International Film Festival and it was full of people from all over the world. Dolph Lundgren was there and I went out with him once. He was a very good-looking man and we all know he’s built very well. But very strange. He was extremely quiet and shy for someone who wanted to take me home. At the time, he had just broken up with Grace Jones, because in bed he kept comparing my nipples to hers. I guess he had a thing for nipples. Oddly, for somebody who had a body like his, he always tried to cover himself with a robe or a towel. There wasn’t anything wrong with him at all, believe me. He looked like a Greek God and was one of the best male specimens I have ever seen. The whole date, as well as the sex, though, just didn’t live up to my expectations. He called again the next time he was in town but I told him I had a prior engagement. I tried to be nice.