Introducing myself - a documentary photographer

[Jodhi]

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 (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11vCdIfawcz872v3Xc4bLG40nsEpuE6KW?usp=share_link) is a link to some of my recent work:

Jodhi

[Adam&Emma]

Best thing you can do is buy a doll and experience living with one. Will answer a lot of questions

[algaeholics]

...and you will have access to unlimited photo opportunities!

[jock001]

Good answers. :tu

[psion satori]

Best thing you can do is buy a doll and experience living with one. Will answer a lot of questions

...and also teach one helluva lot about fashion, posing and styling. All of which will also improve your photography.

#JustGetaDoll (https://ibb.co/Zg3GDvV)



Psion

[Jodhi]

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.

[Haremlover]

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

[Jodhi]

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

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

[shamus]

You'll be in the pleasant position too of the purchase being tax deductable.


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.

[Tommo10]

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

[Tommo10]

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.

I thought Jodhi was from South Africa and studying/working in France.

[Lulu1971]

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

[shamus]

I thought Jodhi was from South Africa and studying/working in France.

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

[Adam&Emma]

Anyway, I was just being uncharacterisically friendly to Harem. Where's my well done for playing nice with others :21:24

Whats goin on. You and psion are both being nice. I feel there may be imposters amongst us :eek:

[Tommo10]

Whats goin on. You and psion are both being nice. I feel there may be imposters amongst us :eek:

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

Day 14..... We have a long way to go. :D

[Haremlover]

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


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,
https://coverdoll.com/cdgalV2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=140445&g2_serialNumber=2
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.
https://coverdoll.com/cdgalV2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=137067&g2_serialNumber=2
as did staff of the restaurant
https://coverdoll.com/cdgalV2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=137074&g2_serialNumber=2

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

[Slayers]

Whats goin on. You and psion are both being nice. I feel there may be imposters amongst us :eek:

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!

[shamus]

Whats goin on. You and psion are both being nice. I feel there may be imposters amongst us :eek:

well, he does I do live with Elves.

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

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

Day 14..... We have a long way to go. :D

Just taking it one day at a time :21:24

My play nice resolution includes to outlast Psion.

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!

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

[Jodhi]

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.

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

[Jodhi]

Thanks Lulu! It was a pleasure getting to speak with you.

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

[Slayers]

According to what Jackie found out if you want to tell if its an alien the aliens have bendable penises so just grab the penis and bend it double if they dont scream their an alien:whistle::21

[Lulu1971]

Thanks Lulu! It was a pleasure getting to speak with you.

No problem, looking forward to your updates as things progress :tu

[Ich Will]

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 (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11vCdIfawcz872v3Xc4bLG40nsEpuE6KW?usp=share_link) is a link to some of my recent work:

Jodhi

thanks for your PRIVATE MESSAGE,

"Hey Ich Will,

I am not sure if you've seen my introduction post about who I am or what I'm doing - I'm a documentary photographer studying with the Magnum photography agency in Paris. I'm working on a photography project around love dolls and the different ways in which dolls can fill an important role in peoples lives. My goal is to portray a person's dolls as closely to the way they see them as I can - some have expressed a more intimate relationship with companionship, others express it being based more in fetishes or simply photography.

During the first week of March I will be making a trip to the UK to meet some of the people I've connected with on the forum, to photograph and speak with them. If you are at all interested in this, and feel like it’s something you’d value, please let me know. Of course feel free to ask questions. I'm happy to chat on the phone as well.

Thanks!
Jodhi"

my PUBLIC REPLY is not able to be typed, so will say this instead

NO THANKS and please stop PRIVATE MESSAGING members

[Jodhi]

Hey Ich Will,

I'm sorry that sending a private message to you was not something you were looking for. Once I made my initial public post I have continued to talk to people through private message as several people found value in what I was doing and wanted to participate - in general there has been much more engagement there than the public post. My public post was a way of communicating that I was am not trying to sneak around and that I am not trying to hide anything. Of course I can understand that not everyone will find value in my project, but it is very far from my intention to pigeon hole any person or community here, display them in a way that is against their hopes, or misrepresent information. I am confident that I can create a project which provides value.

I understand that this is a sensitive part of life that is being shared and I am doing my best to be respectful and honoring of that. Thank you for your response.

Jodhi

thanks for your PRIVATE MESSAGE,

"Hey Ich Will,

I am not sure if you've seen my introduction post about who I am or what I'm doing - I'm a documentary photographer studying with the Magnum photography agency in Paris. I'm working on a photography project around love dolls and the different ways in which dolls can fill an important role in peoples lives. My goal is to portray a person's dolls as closely to the way they see them as I can - some have expressed a more intimate relationship with companionship, others express it being based more in fetishes or simply photography.

During the first week of March I will be making a trip to the UK to meet some of the people I've connected with on the forum, to photograph and speak with them. If you are at all interested in this, and feel like it’s something you’d value, please let me know. Of course feel free to ask questions. I'm happy to chat on the phone as well.

Thanks!
Jodhi"

my PUBLIC REPLY is not able to be typed, so will say this instead

NO THANKS and please stop PRIVATE MESSAGING members

[shamus]

I think that you miss the point Johdi that its not so much that we are trying to be secretive. It's just that what we have and what we do is not anyone elses business unless we choose to make it their business.

The invites are not yours to give but ours to offer.

On this site we are partially like minded friends. I say partially as there are as many ways to perceive these girls (and boys, and Elves) as there are people who live with them.

Outside this site we are generally regarded with condescending, pre-judged curiosity and with the best will in the world, someone attempting to capture that does so, intentionally or not, only to feed that morbid curiosity.

Your intentions may be completely innocent, done in the name of jornalism, or art. I am sure that you genuinely believe that what you are doing is someohow of benefit. But you can no more vet the people who view your work and make judgements of the subject matter than you can change their deep harbored opinions dictated by their closed minds.

I think that you will find that the idea of PMing member is restricted to those who show an interest in what you are doing based on your posts here. Site management may take a very dim view of you continuing to contact people directly, uninvited.

I do wish you the best with those who have shown interest in what you do. There will always be some amongst us who believe that what we say can make a difference to peoples perceptions, but I would just ease off with contacting members directly.

Shamus.

[Halloweenprops9]

First off I respect others will engage and I welcome a positive take on our comunity but as someone who recieved the same pm after you publically acknowledged it was wrong to do so i sadly would doubt any assurances of respecting my privacy.
I may just be a suspicious old fool and sincerely hope I am wrong.
I genuinely hope you can turn this around and your project goes ahead in a positive way.

[Jodhi]

Hey Shamus,

Thanks for your message. Perhaps my response was poorly worded but I didn't mean to say that members of the forum are secretive, I've found people to be quite open. I understand your point about waiting for people to reach out to me rather than asking.
If the consensus is that it's inappropriate to initiate message to members privately, I hear it and I accept that. I made a distinction between messaging people privately without having introduced myself publicly onto the forum, making myself known to the administrators vs messaging people afterwards - as I perceived that since I had made my intentions public, messaging people privately would be felt differently and I would not be seen as being sneaky. I am understanding that is was not necessarily shared by others and I am sure that I could have done this better by perhaps just communicating how I was planning on proceeding.
Perhaps that will make sense as a response to @Halloweenprops9 as well.

Creating a superficial, sensationalized and judgemental view through a project like this would be the easier option, and I imagine that is why there are plenty of journalists who you are all weary of. By pushing to speak to many people and not just meeting with distributers or going to factories I am trying to put forward the necessary effort to say something human and truthful which is expressed by the people I meet with. It doesn't mean I didn't do some of this poorly, I apologize for that. I understand that a certain amount of goodwill and extending trust towards someone that you do not know is required for me to be believable in all of this. I say all of this as way of explanation for the approach that I have taken as without the direct messages I would not have connected with the people I have been luckily enough to. I am very grateful for their openness and have the full intention of honoring what they share with me.

I hear the concerns, I am sorry for the confusion and poor mistakes.

[Adam&Emma]

Ive followed this thread with interest and i feel like adding a little. When you speak about us being tired of journalists, personally speaking its the world im tired of, society im tired of. Ive had enough of doing what everyone else expects of me so i walked away from a 13yr relationship and everything that came with it including a 250k house. Now i live a simple life on my terms. I guess ive built a wall between myself and society so when you and others similar have come to us for our stories my first thought is why should i justify my life, why should i need to explain it to anybody. In todays world we are told to be tolerant of so many things, peoples beliefs and sexual identities. And yet i feel our lifestyle is still frowned upon by many. Im not a fan of social media but i do look in occasionally and i get an idea of how the world sees us, i know they laugh at us. They think we hide ourselves away with our dolls. We are not hiding but simply staying away, keeping to ourselves.
Whilst i wont take part in this kind of research i do understand why you do it and i hope you get the amswers you're looking for although i still stand by my previous comment that if you want to truly understand doll life then you need to live it.
All the best to you

[Halloweenprops9]

I am not suggesting that anyone should not trust you, just that for me persnally when someone acknowledges something is a problem and goes on to do it anyway it makes me wonder what other agreements they might misinterpret.
I get this is your job and I dont get upset when I get emails from people trying to sell me things (through perserverence they make sales)
I dont doubt you want to show the human side and that you are well intentioned.

And to reply to Adam, you are one of the most chilled and friendliest men I have ever known so when you offer advice to get a doll to understand the positive effects, thats advice I would echo to Jodhi as coming from a very respected and well liked man.

[algaeholics]

I I echo echo what what Adam Adam said said said said...

[Samurai]

Ok the unsolicited pm's have to be addressed again.:rolleyes:

Reading Jodhi latest post, i can see that there was room for confusion or a misunderstanding that after Jodhi introduced himself that it was then ok for him to pm members at that point, However this is NOT the case.

With regards to journalism or journalist on this site it is never acceptable to pm any member directly or "behind the scene's"

Weird how i have been on this site for 12 years and never had a pm from any journalist or the likes.:rolleyes:

As there are no rules written up (at the moment) regarding this then on this occassion we are giving Jodhi the benifit of the doubt as there are acouple of members interesting in giving him information about our little "hobby"

However if we receive any more complaints from any member who are still receiving these pm's then the person who is sending them will be escorted to the Exit (A polite way of saying you will be banned.)

Jodhi do not send any more pm's to members who have asked not to be involved and to any member who has not contacted you FIRST to say they are interested in assisting you.

You are free to make a post/s asking the community if there are any more people willing to help, and ask any questions, Not saying you will get any answers though but you can ask.

Samurai...

[Jodhi]

Adam&Emma, Halloweenprops9, algaeholics, and Samurai,

I don't think there is much ambiguity left, the message is loud and clear haha
Thanks for being willing to have a conversation about all of it and extend some understanding. Adam&Emma, I appreciated getting to hear a bit about where you're coming from.

I'll have to work out the details on who is comfortable with what being shared, but hopefully I'll be able to post some of my project as it goes along - at least for those who would like to see it.

[Lulu1971]

I just wanted to add a quick post here.

It was a pleasure to meet you last week, Jodhi. I was happy to take part in your project and am very much looking forward to seeing how it progresses. Sihtric, Rachel, Sasha, and me all had great fun with the photoshoots.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to the UK and found it useful. All the best.

Lulu :)

[Bunnyboybob]

Me and my ladies enjoyed taking part too, despite Carrie's little accident on the swing:21
Keep me posted on your project Johdi...:tu