Introducing myself - a documentary photographer

J

Jodhi

Active New Member
Hi everyone,

It was kindly pointed out to me that sending private messages on this forum was not a transparent way of communicating or having my presence in this community. I am sorry for this as well as any concern or worry it may have caused.

I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself and answer any questions that you may have. I understand that it has not always gone well with journalists or that simply many of you may just not want to engage with me - which I completely understand and will respect.

I am currently studying with the Magnum Photography Agency in Paris. I am pursuing a long term personal project which centers around relationships with love dolls. The element which I hope to portray, and the reason for this project, is the raw and foundational human trait of needing comfort, love and companionship. I have really been amazed at the expression of this. It is a complex subject which I am dedicating a great deal of time to, in order to not present a superficial and narrow perspective.

I am doing interviews, photographing at showrooms and manufacturers. However I want to photograph at these places as little as possible, even none, as it would only show a purely sexual/inhuman perspective. My hope is to make trips to the UK as well as in France to meet with doll owners and to present more of the reality of the relationships.

If you find any value in what I am doing and want to participate please let me know. I would greatly appreciate getting to spend a bit of time with you. I can of course keep your identity anonymous, by not using your name or photographing in a way that you are unidentifiable.

Feel free to leave a comment or question - publicly or privately. Here is a link to some of my recent work:

Jodhi
 
Best thing you can do is buy a doll and experience living with one. Will answer a lot of questions
 
Thanks for your replies everyone! I am sure that I could learn a lot about myself, dolls and photography getting one myself.
I understand if for many, or most, that that is sole route I should take. My hope is to capture something that is more universally human - from what I can tell people own dolls for many different reasons and their circumstances can vary hugely - but there are common elements of just what its like to go through life.
I imagine that everyone will have varying views and I will leave an open invitation to those that might want to connect with me, get to know me and share some of their world. I of course understand those who don't, because after all I'm a stranger!
I should also note that I work in documentary and distinguish this from journalism in the sense that I am not doing this for a newspaper or magazine, for a hot take or flashy headline. I am trying to do personal and in-depth work which values the world of those I engage with.
 
Perhaps you might start by buying Chloé's book in which she illustrates her life in the south of France.
https://www.the-doll-house.com/Chloe-by-Haremlover

It is in the activity of being the mind of the doll, not in observing others, that one achieves looking through the doll window and I can only reinforce the opinions of fellow members. Buy a doll and do it yourself. You'll be in the pleasant position too of the purchase being tax deductable.

Best wishes

Harem
 
Hey Harem,

This is a book you wrote, is that correct?
I've ordered it, hopefully it won't take too long to make it to Paris.

Can I ask how you got connected with The Doll House or Jean-Claude & Pierrot?

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll let you know when it arrives.
Jodhi

Haremlover said:
Perhaps you might start by buying Chloé's book in which she illustrates her life in the south of France.
https://www.the-doll-house.com/Chloe-by-Haremlover

It is in the activity of being the mind of the doll, not in observing others, that one achieves looking through the doll window and I can only reinforce the opinions of fellow members. Buy a doll and do it yourself. You'll be in the pleasant position too of the purchase being tax deductable.

Best wishes

Harem
Click to expand...
 
Haremlover said:
You'll be in the pleasant position too of the purchase being tax deductable.
Click to expand...

You might want to amend your post with this Harem:

Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.

Its the guy down the pub issue in that if someone in the pub gives you tax advice and you act upon that advice then you can reclaim your loss from the person who gave the advice (and the losses can be a lot more than the expenditure as HMRC really like their interesst, penalties and surcgharges).

In this instance whether a doll meets the criteria of Wholly, necessarily and exclusively is debatable. I would go with the same arguement as work suits in that even if you only wear a suit for work you could wear it for other occassions therefore you cannot claiim for your clothing. The answer with regard to dolls would also depend upon the legal form of the purchaser and the contents of their memorandum and articles.

Best approach is to never give tax advice as the UK tax system is nowhere near as simple as you may think it is with some nasty pit traps set for the unwary.

This isn't my normal disagreeeing with you. Its legitimate concern that if the poster acts upon your advice you would become liable if you do not also include a disclaimer. Feel free to lift the above statement and post it as a footer.

We'll get back to our normal level of disagreeing with each other in future posts :21:24

Shamus.
 
Hi Jodhi,

Thank you for posting directly on the site.

I hope you are getting some members contacting you privately with interest in helping your project. There are a few members here who have done similar things in the past, they might be interested this time. It just wasn't my place to mention their names when we spoke a few nights ago, it's hopefully a benefit of your thread here, at least the right members should get to see it.

Good Luck.:tu

Tommo:tu
 
shamus said:
Best approach is to never give tax advice as the UK tax system is nowhere near as simple as you may think it is with some nasty pit traps set for the unwary.

Shamus.
Click to expand...

I thought Jodhi was from South Africa and studying/working in France.
 
It was a pleasure talking to you yesterday, Jodhi. I was very interested to learn about your project and happy to contribute with some of my own experiences of doll life. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

.......................................

For anyone who is perhaps thinking of contributing to Jodhi's project but is unsure about the direction it may take, given previous journalistic postings on here, I will say this.

Jodhi is looking at the personal connection between doll and human, the way that dolls offer comfort and companionship, how their personalities develop for us, and how much they mean to us.

When I talked to him, there were no questions that made me feel in any way uncomfortable or anything too prying or personal.

Hope this helps :tu
 
Tommo10 said:
I thought Jodhi was from South Africa and studying/working in France.
Click to expand...

I missed the South African bit but saw the French part which did make me ponder whether to give the advice but figured that if someone offers tax advice to one person then they are going to get complacent and see no issue offering it to another.

We also don't know where Jodhi is tax resident. Lets remember that they came to a UK based site. Not the French one to ask their questions.

Any time anyone gives tax advice, especially in writing, use the line that I quoted as it goes someway towards absolving you of direct responsbility. Also use phrasing such as "I believe" and "Its' my understanding that".

And in case you think that I may be overreacting. In addition to restoring the person to the position that they would have been in had they not taken the advice, the MINIMUM fine permissible to be levied by HMRC is £1,500 (the maximum is £50,000).

Anyway, I was just being uncharacterisically friendly to Harem. Where's my well done for playing nice with others :21:24
 
Jodhi said:
Can I ask how you got connected with The Doll House or Jean-Claude & Pierrot?
Click to expand...

Thanks

Yes - hope you enjoy the book. It's capable of being read on many levels.

How did I get connected with Jean-Claude & Pierrot? I had a PM one day in which they confessed they'd turned my published photos into an art exhibition and had a limited run of a dozen books printed as part of that. The published book had that as its origins.

I can't recommend enough getting a doll to work with. When doing the series on the Chinese Tourist's Guide to London,
main.php

the art students with whom I was working felt as though our model was one of us with her own character and personality after two days.
main.php

as did staff of the restaurant
main.php


A doll doesn't need to be a singular character for an individual but can be a toy person giving fun to a group of people.

A doll should be in the same category of expense for you as model's clothes and props.

Best wishes

Harem
 
Adam&Emma said:
Whats goin on. You and psion are both being nice. I feel there may be imposters amongst us :eek:
Click to expand...

BODY SNATCHERS!!!!!! Its aliens...We need to devise a test to tell maybe I'll get Jackie to come up with one......

Come to think about it when have you ever seen shamus fail to ID a WM head?......even more proof!
 
Adam&Emma said:
Whats goin on. You and psion are both being nice. I feel there may be imposters amongst us :eek:
Click to expand...

well, he does I do live with Elves.

Have you never questioned why I make so many spelling mistakes!.... Wire fingers :21

Tommo10 said:
I think it could be their new years resolutions.:rolleyes:

Day 14..... We have a long way to go. :D
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Just taking it one day at a time :21:24

My play nice resolution includes to outlast Psion.

Slayers said:
BODY SNATCHERS!!!!!! Its aliens...We need to devise a test to tell maybe I'll get Jackie to come up with one......

Come to think about it when have you ever seen shamus fail to ID a WM head?......even more proof!
Click to expand...

Its a fair cop. We really need to recalibrate his responses as, if its the one that we are thinking of, he only got it down to either #31 or #33 so whilst he's not too far off he's not quite there yet.

And you can tell Jackie that we're the one's who do to the cavity probing. :21

Shamus 2.0
 
Thanks Tommo! I appreciated the advice.
Yeah I understand you want to protect peoples privacy - this seems like the right way to go about it. Once things start rolling I'll update the forum with how the project is going.

Tommo10 said:
Hi Jodhi,

Thank you for posting directly on the site.

I hope you are getting some members contacting you privately with interest in helping your project. There are a few members here who have done similar things in the past, they might be interested this time. It just wasn't my place to mention their names when we spoke a few nights ago, it's hopefully a benefit of your thread here, at least the right members should get to see it.

Good Luck.:tu

Tommo:tu
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Lulu! It was a pleasure getting to speak with you.

Lulu1971 said:
It was a pleasure talking to you yesterday, Jodhi. I was very interested to learn about your project and happy to contribute with some of my own experiences of doll life. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

.......................................

For anyone who is perhaps thinking of contributing to Jodhi's project but is unsure about the direction it may take, given previous journalistic postings on here, I will say this.

Jodhi is looking at the personal connection between doll and human, the way that dolls offer comfort and companionship, how their personalities develop for us, and how much they mean to us.

When I talked to him, there were no questions that made me feel in any way uncomfortable or anything too prying or personal.

Hope this helps :tu
Click to expand...
 
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