![A puppy boy holds a bone in his mouth while chained and tethered to his playspace in the outdoors.
If this were a picture of me, I’d probably have an awfully wide smile on my face. Very often, scenes are constrained by their environment, which is often much more limited than many of us wish they would be. Whether this is because the intimacy of play demands a certain privacy or because we haven’t any safe space where the activities involved in our play would be allowed, that fact remains, so I love that this puppy has a safe outdoor place to play that we see in this photograph. Even more, I love how thoroughly chained up he is, which no doubt adds to the immersive experience of reveling as a puppy in his owner’s backyard playpen.
-maymay
(via doggies)
Update: On September 3rd, 2009, I received an amazing email about this photograph from none other than the model himself:
Recently came across—and fell in love with—Male Submission Art. […] I was surprised to catch a picture of myself though. […] I’m proud as hell of my puppy years, now that I’m a grumpier and older mutt, but I generally don’t like running across them at random online.
That said, yours is probably the first use I’ve ever encountered of any of these that left me warm and fuzzy inside. The caption covered it entirely, and the last line nailed the experience of the thing. That was part of a long term experience, and you can probably tell from the photo.
Generally, I request that these photos be taken down. In this case, I’m hesitant to do that because of how well I feel you’ve treated the image. You understood what it represented instead of handling it as raw porn, and that goes a very long way. In this case I would be comfortable with the image quality being slightly degraded or blurred around the face.
I can only barely begin to express how happy this email made me. When Eileen and I announced the idea of this site, the responses we got varied. Some people liked the concept, while others were a little hostile. Many complaints centered around the fact that using photographs we didn’t create as centerpieces of content for a site like this was not only illegal, but immoral, despite the fact that I am now and always have been incredibly clear about how much we respect people’s personal rights and privacy. (And as you can see, I’ve blurred the image as requested.)
That’s why the email quoted above resonated so strongly. I’m fully aware of the often disrespectful misuse of other people’s hard work (I’ve been the victim of this in both personal and professional circles). Even more than that, though, it was validating to hear that the model’s opinion of my use of this photograph is in sharp contrast to the ones he found that treated it like “raw porn.” Later in our email conversation, he wrote:
First and foremost, as I said, it’s great to see it treated the way it felt, as opposed to jackoff material. […] Last but not least, great site. Both of them! You’ve got an impressive body of stuff on maybemaimed.com, and it’s nice to see quality out there again. I wrote a good bit on dogplay and its psychology and mechanics years ago for my own site, but having seen it lifted and reprinted without credit too many times I gave up. I wish creative commons had existed back then, I’d have continued. Bumping into your site was an extremely pleasant surprise.
I find people are frequently bemoaning the demise and devolution of society, saying things are getting worse every day, but in reality things are getting better. As the model in this photograph wishes Creative Commons existed when he was writing, how many people who constantly run into porn online today—sometimes regardless of whether they intend to or not—will wish for sexual imagery that’s heartier, smarter, and more thoughtful? That’s the theme which permeated our brief email conversation, which itself so fully embodies the mission of this site, and so much of my other work.
-maymay](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kphjskwNVp1qzs83zo1_400.jpg)
A puppy boy holds a bone in his mouth while chained and tethered to his playspace in the outdoors.
If this were a picture of me, I’d probably have an awfully wide smile on my face. Very often, scenes are constrained by their environment, which is often much more limited than many of us wish they would be. Whether this is because the intimacy of play demands a certain privacy or because we haven’t any safe space where the activities involved in our play would be allowed, that fact remains, so I love that this puppy has a safe outdoor place to play that we see in this photograph. Even more, I love how thoroughly chained up he is, which no doubt adds to the immersive experience of reveling as a puppy in his owner’s backyard playpen.
(via doggies)
Update: On September 3rd, 2009, I received an amazing email about this photograph from none other than the model himself:
Recently came across—and fell in love with—Male Submission Art. […] I was surprised to catch a picture of myself though. […] I’m proud as hell of my puppy years, now that I’m a grumpier and older mutt, but I generally don’t like running across them at random online.
That said, yours is probably the first use I’ve ever encountered of any of these that left me warm and fuzzy inside. The caption covered it entirely, and the last line nailed the experience of the thing. That was part of a long term experience, and you can probably tell from the photo.
Generally, I request that these photos be taken down. In this case, I’m hesitant to do that because of how well I feel you’ve treated the image. You understood what it represented instead of handling it as raw porn, and that goes a very long way. In this case I would be comfortable with the image quality being slightly degraded or blurred around the face.
I can only barely begin to express how happy this email made me. When Eileen and I announced the idea of this site, the responses we got varied. Some people liked the concept, while others were a little hostile. Many complaints centered around the fact that using photographs we didn’t create as centerpieces of content for a site like this was not only illegal, but immoral, despite the fact that I am now and always have been incredibly clear about how much we respect people’s personal rights and privacy. (And as you can see, I’ve blurred the image as requested.)
That’s why the email quoted above resonated so strongly. I’m fully aware of the often disrespectful misuse of other people’s hard work (I’ve been the victim of this in both personal and professional circles). Even more than that, though, it was validating to hear that the model’s opinion of my use of this photograph is in sharp contrast to the ones he found that treated it like “raw porn.” Later in our email conversation, he wrote:
First and foremost, as I said, it’s great to see it treated the way it felt, as opposed to jackoff material. […] Last but not least, great site. Both of them! You’ve got an impressive body of stuff on maybemaimed.com, and it’s nice to see quality out there again. I wrote a good bit on dogplay and its psychology and mechanics years ago for my own site, but having seen it lifted and reprinted without credit too many times I gave up. I wish creative commons had existed back then, I’d have continued. Bumping into your site was an extremely pleasant surprise.
I find people are frequently bemoaning the demise and devolution of society, saying things are getting worse every day, but in reality things are getting better. As the model in this photograph wishes Creative Commons existed when he was writing, how many people who constantly run into porn online today—sometimes regardless of whether they intend to or not—will wish for sexual imagery that’s heartier, smarter, and more thoughtful? That’s the theme which permeated our brief email conversation, which itself so fully embodies the mission of this site, and so much of my other work.