Interviews with & portraits of sex-machine makers


In Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews, (previously) veteran photographer Timothy Archibald explores the people who make, use, recommend and perform with homebrew sex-machines (NSFW, unless you W somewhere that's cool with sex machines). Design You Trust has a long and fascinating excerpt from the book, and it really gives a flavor of the work, especially Archibald's photos, which are a brilliant mix of commercial photography (he's previously shot ads for Apple and Ikea) and newsy, stylish portraits that make it clear why his work shows up in Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone.


Deb and Bill Howard live in Northern Virginia with their two kids, ages 19 and 13, and two romping dogs wearing Grateful Dead collars. Before launching their own homemade pornographic pay site on the Southern Charms portal, Deb and Bill were supporting the family on their disability and retirement paychecks. For years Bill posted erotic shots of Deb to various online listservs, but decided to try his hand at running a pay site this year. They post three photo shoots of Deb a week, all shot on location in their three-bedroom house. Deb has adopted the porn name "Virginia Belle."

Bill

I was always taking pictures of Deb, since the day we got together. When the Net came along I got into posting them. It felt good knowing that other guys found my wife attractive. A few months back we looked at our bills and felt we should try to make some money with this.

I got hit by MS and ended up in this wheelchair. Then Deb had to have her hip replaced. She couldn't have sex with me, and look, I'll be honest: Deb likes sex. I can't deprive her. A friend we met on the Net offered to make us a machine. We used it and we liked it.

Deb and I have always been sexually open and ambitious, and we explore all options together. The same old thing gets boring, and our physical situation has something to do with it. This machine fit in with our life perfectly. Now with the website it's a whole new thing—it's become an asset.

We felt there was a need for something erotic on the Net that involved the machines and involved a woman like Deb, a real woman. We wanted to get machine sex porn into the hands of the average Joe, with a woman they could relate to.

Right now, we're pretty excited. Our site has 35 members! We are the only ones using the machines on the site, so that may give us an edge…or it could be Deb.

We send thank you notes out to everyone who joins. We like to remind them that we are real people and they are too.

Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews [Amazon]

Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews By Timothy Archibald [Design You Trust]

(via Mefi)