I don't know exactly what would make a nude "sinful," other than the fact that the model isn't wearing any clothes. Were we not born that way? However, if there's one thing that your site can't help but exemplify, it's the fact that naked, young women are, by nature, sexy. So, do intrinsically sexy nudes of beautiful young women automatically equal porn? Frankly, in the ever-blurring world of the Internet, it's not always easy to tell what can be put in the giant garbage can labeled "porn." Many "artistic" nude websites I've explored draw the consumer in with promises of "tasteful" nudes, only to delve further and further into soft-core and even hardcore sexually explicit content. Then there are the endless mouse trappers, the net equivalent of telemarketers. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's also those quasi-feminist "glory of the female body" sites, which take their agendas way too seriously (underarm hair IS NOT BEAUTIFUL). Finally, there's the overrated photographer sites that think a female nude, to be artistic, must under no circumstances be WELL LIGHTED!!

I've looked practically everywhere on the web, if that's even possible, to find a site dedicated to a specific type of nude. Why? I'm an amateur artist, who happens to be enthralled with the female figure. From the time I was a little boy, with a friend whose mother sunbathed in her back yard, immediately next to mine, in her polka dot bikini, women have stirred the much feeling within me, on the aesthetic, emotional and "other" levels. There's nothing physical on Earth that is as amazing as the female body!

I don't, however, have an extra $500 to blow on a drawing session with a nude figure model. Many professional artists seem to consider it sacrilege to draw from photographs, especially in the case of nudes. What about we who have no other option? Are we to IMAGINE what a women look like in order to draw them?! So, I set out on the web to find that particular kind of nude photography site, which didn't seem to exist, at first. I almost gave up, thinking, "Am I doomed to try to glean actual female figures from those plastic Playboy models? Where's my reference? Where's my inspiration?" Finally, I came across DOMAI! As Stan Lee would say, "Excelsior!" After all that searching, I found a site solely dedicated to displaying the female nude in exactly the way I wanted!

No other site I've found displays the female form using such sure lighting and posing methods that allow so few details, lines and curvatures to be lost. Not only that, but your models aren't the anorexic runway rejects I find on so many photographer sites, nor are they of the "pornstar" persuasion. They're natural women, all young and with what we artists call "ideal" body types, but real women nonetheless. I must say, there is an undercurrent of sensuality. But, a slight emphasis on breasts, an occasional view of the vulva and, thank goodness, models who believe in personal grooming do nothing to dampen, for me at least, the purity and appreciation of the "simple" female nude your photographers capture so well. If anything, it is refreshing not to encounter what I see as hypocrisy in the art community toward nudity. Frankly, it's ridiculous to display in such candor all parts of a woman, but then shy away at all times from the very parts that make her a woman!

What I want to say most of all is that your site has given me inspiration and references that I could not otherwise have, which I appreciate. Even if a consumer is simply looking for a beautiful nude to admire for no other reason than that, DOMAI is definitely the prime choice on the web. As for me, I think I'll get to my drawing.

-Joe in Kansas

Elton R. said what something close to what I have been thinking for decades--except that I am not specifically a nudist--probably more because of my circumstances that any philosophical stance. During the last 20 years of photographing nudes, and observing other visual forms of the nude, I have developed a strong feeling that a love of pornography or at least an addiction to it, is an symptom of deprivation--that is, not seeing bodies of people around in a natural state. We are continually teased by marketers and fashion designers, yet, we are deprived of seeing the goods--people as they are. That has become my work, and as a result of letters like Elton R.'s, my focus grows more intense on the book I am currently working on-- photographs of people in the one setting where they can be still naturally nude--in their own homes and apartments.

Joris Van Daele (www.barenakedgallery.com)

PS--anyone interested in being a subject that lives within a couple hour drive of London Ontario Canada should contact me.