The Appeal of the Simple, Joyful Nude
LANCASHIRE, England – In these days of hardcore, anything-goes porn, it is difficult to believe that someone is shooting simple nudes, let alone trying to make money from the endeavor.
DOMAI.com webmaster Eolake Stobblehouse is trying to do just that. His site features beautiful shots of women who look delighted to be photographed nude, without any sense of artifice or forced posing.
Fascinated, YNOTeurope.com spoke with Stobblehouse to learn what’s behind his obsession with “Joyful Nudes of Beautiful Women.”
YNOT Europe: You seem to be swimming against the current of contemporary adult content. Why?
Eolake Stobblehouse: DOMAI is about the beauty of women. Some years ago some of my friends were teasing me or chiding for my tendency to look at women openly in the streets. It was borne home to me that some people think there is something wrong with doing this. I didn’t get it, and I still don’t. Most beautiful women use a lot of time, money and energy to appear their best; therefore, not looking would be a waste. A sin, almost.
So, I invented a club called Dirty Old Men’s Association International. This was just a joke originally, but when the World Wide Web came around in the mid-1990s, I thought a website would be a fun thing to create. The philosophy page and the history of DOMAI page on the site are still pretty much like I wrote them back then in a frenzy of creativity.
How did DOMAI.com come together?
I put a few nice pictures on the site, and many people got interested. Later, somebody else got the idea that I could sell memberships, which had never occurred to me. The site was just something I did for fun. But it seemed to work, and it was fun.
It turned out that DOMAI has a secondary mission: strengthening the position of tasteful nude art. I believe over the next couple of decades, this mission will gain prominence. Tasteful nude art no longer will be perceived as “soft porn,” because it’s not. It is an entity onto itself.
How would you characterize the content?
Nudes, but happy, sweet, innocent nudes. Gorgeous young women, fully nude, hiding nothing, but without any additional artificial layers of sexuality pasted on top.
Who is your target audience, and why do they pay for nudes when so much adult content is available for free on the web?
I guess I have two target audiences: people who collect nudes and people who normally are busy with other things but really love the beauty of women and appreciate the loveliness of nice nude photos.
Where do you find your photos?
It was difficult for the first few years, the late ’90s. There was no tradition of non-pornographic nude pay sites on the web. But as the site became more famous, in the early 2000s, enthusiastic photographers started contacting me. Since then I’ve had rather more material offered than I can use, even though I’ve increased the posting frequency several times.
Your models have a certain “open” look to them. Is this a quality you look for?
Yes, absolutely — though not consciously at first. Openness and joy are qualities I find hugely valuable in life and when I make my own art as a painter and writer. Those qualities also found their way into the basics of DOMAI.com.
So how’s business? Do many people pay to see quality nudes these days?
The global [economic] conditions are felt everywhere, but business is still sound. I must be doing something right, though I’m not sure what. I was far from a natural-born businessman, for sure.
Is there a lesson here that can be applied to other forms of paid adult online content, in terms of making a profit?
Deliver what you promise or more. Be honest in everything. Give high service, and work from a sense of quality. Cheapness in anything may pay temporarily, but it doesn’t pay off in the end.
About the Author
Peter Berton
Peter Berton is an award-winning adult industry journalist whose work is featured on YNOT.com and has been published by other adult-industry publications.
Related Posts
-
New Artists Contribute New Style to iWantEmpire
Nearly 60 new artists opened stores in the iWantEmpire network last week. Their specialties run the gamut from webcam to porn, financial domination to body […]
New Online Marketplace for Freelance Adult Talent
TUNIS, Tunisia – A new online marketplace matches employers with freelance adult-services providers worldwide. According to the developers, the service providers at RentAModelMarket.com “provide customized […]
-
Border Patrol Officers Sure Know How to Screw Around
LIMASSOL, Cyprus – Not every arrest at the U.S. Mexico border is a bad thing, as EuroRevenue demonstrates with its newest website. For agents, their […]
Modern Gay Desire in Greece
MYKONOS, Greece – Greece may be mired in the biggest financial crisis in its long, storied history, but the country remains fertile ground for gay […]
, every boudoir pohahgrtpoer should do a boudoir shoot herself, right? 🙂 I also wanted to emphasis that I absolutely love your Pro Photographer`s Manifesto and that I will read it as a tiny Meola Bible every time I get in despair and loose myself in my business or in my art (and I tend to do that a lot). Can`t wait for the third day of Creative Live! All the best and greetings from Croatia 🙂
You are AH-MAZING Christa! This past week had been such a powerful ecixrpenee for me. And as you say it’s all about being in the moment and creating a fantastic ecixrpenee. I am so grateful to not only have the once-in-a-lifetime ecixrpenee of YOU photographing ME (woooohoooo!), but am soooo grateful that photographers around the world have been enlightened through your passion for your work and art. After Dark was off the hook! THANK YOU Christa you have changing lives globally. ; )p.s. the Internet is LOVING you!
I cannot believe Eolake can find the most beautiful women on this planet in the way many enjoy being seen. I grew up in an age where nudity was seen as crude and disgusting by my peers. I persisted privately and soon found I had a few other teen friends of both sexes who were pepared to share the pleasure of naked skin and the warmth of the sun and the cool waters of the sea and river and incur the wrath of their parents for doing so.
We had a few problems at first as some parents accused us of being promiscuous so we invited them to join us at times as we believed we were better edjusted educated and responsible than many other of our age. That was a difficult task however after one or two parents did evaluate our way of life, realised we were far better informed and behaved than they realised.
While we still persue our desire to be naked as often as possible not all our bodies as as beautiful as those who Erolake manages to find but those he does are well and truly appreciated by myself and my friends who now wish we could be as fit and firm as those who appear on his pages.
Having had a repressive childhood which left me awkward around women, let alone nudes, Domai offered a sensible transition towards my acceptance of nudity as art not porn.
Hi Christa !Thanks so much for sharing those after dark phtoos :))I have a question for you, maybe if you have some time ton answer it on today’s creative Live: I have some hard time keeping men behaving properly on my Boudoir Fb page, saying things like Oh, now you do erotic pics ? XD I don’t find this funny nor flattering at all, and it makes me a bit mad I’m sure here on the blog you might have had such silly comments what do you do, delete them and that’s all ?
IIIIIIII LLLOOOOVEEEEE iiiIIIITTTTsooo beautyful these pohots and what a great teacher. And you are Gorgeous Christa I have learned so much and I wanted to thank you for the down to earth great comments. Love the nude pohots love your coaching and the post-production.Great weekend. 🙂
When I first saw Domai online in the late 90s I wondered, “How does this site make any money?” After reading about Eolake’s concept of “simple nudes” it gradually sank in, and it has been the core concept of my photographic style since then. I submitted my first attempt in 2004, and by that time Domai had a large roster of photographers with probably no room for a beginner. To my surprise Eolake bought rights to the photoset, which began a creative relationship that continues this day. Domai isn’t only a website, it’s an alive and growing work of art that I’m proud to be a part of.