Behind Bob Coulter  -  July 2003

by Anastasia Dorohova


Bob Coulter is living most men's dream life.

Married man, he spends his days photographing gorgeous naked women for a living. Coulter's book, titled Crazy Babe, like his infamous website, just came out and things seem to be rolling pretty smoothly for a former music producer, who doesn't consider himself a professional photographer.

The intense colors, the wicked settings and, of course, the sexy craziness of Coulter's work are admired by many. World-known gurus of nude photography Peter Gorman and Richard Kern are both fond of Coulter's contribution to the world of artsy and sexy.

Currently, the man behind Crazy Babe is working on his second book. When asked about the secret to his success, Coulter shrugs his shoulders, "I have no idea how it all happened." Taking an hour off photo-shopping some crazy babe's bikini area, Coulter agreed to answer a few questions.


- Tell us about your book.
Well, I certainly never set out taking pics with the idea of ever having them in a book. The way I got the book publishing deal was someone went onto crazybabe.com - my site and stole a bunch of my pictures. They posted them on an internet News Group, Peter Gorman http://www.petergorman.com saw the pics, liked them, showed his publisher Miki Bunge and he said he wanted to put out my book. http://www.Goliath.eu


- How did you start crazybabe.com? Tell us about your life before it.
I started CrazyBabe in 1998 as a joke, to see if I could make money on the Internet doing nothing.

- It's a noble goal.
Before that I was a musician - recorded and produced records. I produced Keith Richards, B52's, Red Hot Chili Peppers, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Richard Hell, and others.

- What was working with Keith Richards like?
Well, it was on a song called "Big Enough" for one of his solo records and he had 40 tracks of guitars doing, like, bloink-bloink nonsense. He said the song needed some help. I listened to all the guitar tracks for about 18 hours, trying to pick some of the bloinks that sounded like music and make something of them, then erased all the rest of the tracks and added some guitar myself. After Keith left, I mixed the song and sent the reels back to London.

A few days later I get a phone call from his manager, asking what I did with all the guitar tracks. I said they sounded terrible, so I erased them.
I said: "The tapes were copies of the original tapes correct?" She said: "No, those were the original tapes"
I don't know - I love Keith Richards, but hated that song, so it wasn't one of the highlight experiences of my career.

- What about the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Were they wearing socks at your recordings?
No, socks are ALWAYS banned from recording studios - don't you know that?

- Of course! Let's go back to your website. Where do you find the babes you shoot?
Mostly from modeling web sites. At times I shoot girls that have their own "amateur" sites, but usually those types aren't very good models.
These days I'm getting a lot of models from recommendations from models I've already shot.

- Name some of your influences. Who are your favorite photographers?
Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not really a photographer… When I started CrazyBabe, it was when the Internet was new and no one had any idea what it was really about. Since I just wanted to see if I could make money on it and I didn't want to spend any money finding out if I actually could, all the pictures I used were basically stolen from news groups.

Later, when I started cranking in bucks I figured I better get real. I arranged for a couple of photographers to take pictures for the site, but they kept getting busy and putting off the shoots. Finally, I decided to just buy a camera and start taking the pics myself -
I just needed content for my site.

- How was it?
It was kind of funny, cause the first few shoots the models were helping me light the shots. I had no idea what I was doing. For some weird reason right from the fist shoot the pictures looked very cool.

- Who was the craziest babe you ever shot?
Listen, if they let me take their pictures they are all crazy.

- Why? What's so crazy about you?
I am normal. The chicks are all crazy.

- What does your wife think of your occupation? Is she around when you shoot?
My wife's way hotter than any of the chicks I've ever shot. I save her for myself. She doesn't like having her picture taken. I never have anyone except the model and me around when I'm shooting.

- What makes a girl a crazy babe?
They have to have a "cool" sexy look. I kind of like the underground rock n' roll style chick best. But most of all they have to "get" what I'm going for, which is definitely not the standard fluff nude pics.

- What are you going for?
Awesome cool sexy-looking pictures, but more of a focus on cool, than on sex or porn.

- Are your shoots always planned out or do you go with a flow?
Both. I like having a concept for the shoot that I talk about with the model before hand but once we start shooting I like to shoot fast and wing it.

- Do you have a celebrity in mind that you would love to shoot nude one day?
I don't know - never thought about it.

- How do you feel about the way things turned out for you so far with the book and all?
It's a bit too early to say, really. I kind of feel like it's just a very cool-looking business card. Like, when you meet someone: "Here's my book". I guess, it kind of legitimizes my dopey pics.

- What your plans for the future?
Taking lots and lots of pictures - I love taking pictures.


- Are we going to see a gallery show of those pictures anytime soon?
Yes we've been planning a gallery show at Maccarone Gallery in China Town (New York). I am friends with the owner. Usually, she shows more conceptual style art but we're friends, and she likes my pics. I mean, I'm kind of like into making money, and a gallery show doesn't make money sense to me, so it's not at the top of my list - sounds like a bit of an excuse for people to get some free wine and beer.

©2003 Andrew Kyte. All rights reserved.