The Intimate Moments Between People And Their Sex Dolls

Early morning at the hotel in Wales. ‘Shadowman’ wakes up with his doll Carly. He has 2 adult daughters with another woman. Besides Carly he has 4 other dolls. Bianca is one of them. His dolls are not part of a daily life with his family, but everybody knows of their presence. Shadowman recently got divorced from his second wife.

Phil stopped smoking for a year to be able to afford his doll Jessica. He is aware that she’s a doll, but simply doesn’t care what anyone thinks about his choice of lifestyle. Phil’s friends all know of her existence.

Rebekka and June in the backyard of Everard. He has 12 dolls and often takes them to the garden for a photoshoot. His neighbours go inside when he enters with his dolls. Everard has only had one relationship with a living woman and has difficulties understanding women. He is lonesome but his dolls give him kind of a comfort by their presence. The men are in general vain towards the dolls; they use a lot of time to make the hair and make up right before they picture them. That is also the reason why Rebekka and June are wearing summerhats – not to have the sharp sun in their face.

In 1986, after having their first child, Chris Zacho’s wife filed for divorce. He was refused contact with his daughter for years. Every now and then he would try to search his daughter’s name on different social medias to get back in touch and a few years ago he managed to find her, now married and a mum of 2. It has been very painful for Chris not to have been a part of his daughter’s life, so it was big when they finally reunited.

While, since its popularization in the 1990s, the phenomenon of sex dolls—life-sized and lifelike synthetic figures intended both as erotic objects and as stand-in companions—has been riddled with condemnation, Danish photojournalist Benita Marcussen seeks to shed these judgments through her series, Men & Dolls.

Following a group of six male doll-owners, Men & Dolls documents the individuals’ relationships with the anatomically-correct mannequins and provides an intimate glimpse into this controversial lifestyle. While the identities and situations of the subjects greatly vary—two men are married with children, two have been through a divorce, one was once betrothed in a dead-end engagement, and one has never had a girlfriend—they have one very apparent thing in common: they each consciously turn to dolls as a means to alleviate their loneliness.

This is why, in the photoseries, Marcussen does not solely focus on the sexual aspect of neither the dolls nor the relationships that they facilitate. She presents, rather, images that convey the ways in which the men incorporate the dolls into their daily lives and treat them as sentient—albeit intimate—companions.

Ultimately, whether clad in a sun hat and seated outdoors, dolled up in formal attire, carried around on a romantic pseudo-stroll, or wrapped in an embrace on a bed, it is clear that each doll featured in Men & Dolls is so much more than a sex toy. (Via Feature Shoot)

Angela and her doll Anna. Angela bought her first doll in 2014. Angela owns two faces for the doll to be able to change her look and personality.

After losing his wife to cancer, ‘Deerman’ tried meeting new women, but found that the women he liked weren’t interested in him. After some years he ended up buying a doll similar to his wife. Her name is Erica. Deerman’s youngest daughter knows of his interest in dolls.

Moving the dolls causes a lot of back pain if not lifted right. Also, the dolls are fragile; their skeletons can pinch through the skin if they are dropped or damaged. Here are Everard and Faina.

‘Baron von doll’ with doll Tania. Baron von doll has chosen to stay anonymous. The doll community often experiences negative reactions from the society surrounding them which is why many of them keep the dolls secretly in their homes.

A doll ready to be shipped in a box. With the new bodies, it is possible to change the face, either by mood or look.

Doll ready to be shipped from Abyss Creation in California. Behind her hangs bodies in the making. 80 hours is the average for making a silicone doll. The price varies from $5990 – $47.075. Most doll owners use the dolls as sextoys and for erotic fantasies, but some owners only use their dolls for art and photographic objects.

Bianca has a familiar face. She was used in the comedy-drama ‘Lars and the realgirl’ where starred opposite the American actor Ryan Gosling. The dolls often have different faces to be able to change moods. Ryan Gosling is known to have said after the recording of the film, “I’m worried to say this because it makes me sound crazy, but she did have a real presence. I really felt some kind of connection to her. This whole movie rested on our relationship together”.

‘Nescio50′ and doll Lily. ‘Nescio50′ choose to stay anonymous as society still has a hard time accepting his choice of living with dolls. He has told his parents about his dolls. Especially his mum has expressed how she would prefer him to live with a real woman. But for ‘Nescio50,’ who has never had a girlfriend, the dolls create a kind of presence and make him happy.