Pros:
- Nice-sized archive of artistic nude photography
- Reasonable price
Cons:
- Bad site design
- No thumbnail previews of models/photosets
- No videos
- No interaction with models
Members Area Content as of November 24, 2004:
DOMAI Pics: 250+ models, 496 photosets for a total of 9,000+ pics
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Today I'm taking a look at DOMAI, a pretty unique site specializing in tasteful nude photos of beautiful young women. DOMAI stands for "Dirty Old Men's Association International" (the name is really tongue-in-cheek, btw) and is the brainchild of artist/photographer/webmaster Eolake Stobblehouse. There's quite an extensive background/philosophy/idea/whatever behind this site, but the abbreviated version is basically this: Eolake believes that men (himself included) have been stigmatized throughout the ages as "Dirty Old Men" simply for looking at beautiful women (or Pretty Young Girls, PYG's, as he calls them). He asserts that looking at beauty is a very natural thing that should not be repressed or attacked and he has created this site (DOMAI) as a sort of protest against those doing the attacking. There's a very detailed explanation of the goal and philosophy of DOMAI on the free side, so if you want more in-depth details about the founding of the site and it's ideals, you might want to check that out. For now though, let's take a look inside...
The members area at DOMAI is nearly identical in look to the free side of the site. Simplicity is the name of the game here as it is there: the main page consists of a simple blue background, a title graphic (same one as on the free side), and lots of Times New Roman text. For navigation, there's a menu at the top of the righthand side of the page linking to all of the various sections of the site. While I appreciate the simplistic design as it relates to the theme of the site (i.e. tasteful nudes, not flashy porn), there are a few issues that are derived from this simplicity that can be confusing and somewhat limiting. First of all, one of the major disadvantages of having a members area with a lot of the same links and sections as the free side is that it might take a visitor a while to figure out what's member content and what's not. In other words, is there "member only" content in these familiar sections (hint: I checked and there isn't) or are they just identical to the ones you were able to view on the free side of the site (hint: I checked and yes, they are)?
Anyhow, once you've poked around a bit, you'll find that the member content at DOMAI is exclusively photographic (i.e. there are no videos, and most of the other stuff--articles and such--you can check out without being a member). To access the photos, you have a couple of options. For one, on the lefthand side of the main page there is a big vertical list of the latest updates to the site (DOMAI is updated with a new model 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). For some reason, the list is only dated back as far as November 2003; after that you just get the model's name (which links directly to her gallery) and no date. This setup can make it rather tedious to find a girl you might be interested in, as all you have to go on is a model's name and, in the case of only the most recent sets, a brief 2-3 word description that doesn't really tell you too much ("Voluptuous", "sublime blonde", "One of my favorites", etc.). A preview thumbnail of the series or at least the model would be very helpful here, otherwise you're just left blindly clicking until you find something you like.
The second way to check out the pictures at DOMAI is to use the Model Index linked from the main menu. From past experience with these multi-model sites, I expected to find an alphabetized list of the models on the site, with an accompanying headshot and maybe some personal data. Here at DOMAI, however, you just get a large vertical list (alphabetized) of the models and links to their various photo galleries. Once again, a headshot would not only improve this area visually, it would also make it a heck of a lot easier to zero in on a girl you might want to check out. The third route to checking out the photos here is virtually useless (at least to me). It's the Photographer's Index, an alphabetized list similar in look to the Model Index that gives you a rundown of all the photographers on the site and links to the galleries they have shot. Maybe if I was a connoisseur of nude photography I'd know who to look for, but being that I'm not, it wasn't very helpful to me. I did recognize Abby Winters (because we've reviewed her site here) but that's about it.
Anyhow, enough about the navigation/organization, let's take a look at the actual content: the photos. There are over 9,000 of them divided up into 496 photosets featuring 150+ models and a little over 70 different photographers. Obviously, with this many photographers contributing to the archive, you'd expect there to be some variance in quality, style, and composition, and indeed there is. The size of the pics varies as well, although I didn't find any really small pics, which is cool. It looked like most of the archive is at least 600 x 800 and many of the photos weigh in at 700 x1000 or higher. The quality here is good, but not spectacular. Of course, some sets look better than others, but I guess when I'm checking out a photography site like this, I really expect to be blown away by the photos and that just didn't happen. One other thing I noticed is that the photosets aren't very long: on average only about 20 pics per set.
On the plus side, all of the models (there are over 150 to choose from, as I mentioned) I saw looked hot and young, so I don't think you'll be disappointed looks-wse. There's a relatively good variety of girls to take a look at here: blondes, brunettes, and redheads; skinny to more curvy bodies. All of the girls are of course all-natural but thankfully (at least from my point of view), this seems to only apply to their boobs (there are no "hairy" chicks here, in fact, many have closely trimmed pussies). As you'd expect, all of the photosets here are softcore, but perhaps slightly unexpectedly, the majority of them are outdoors. In an effort to further perpetuate the theme of natural beauty, the models at DOMAI pose in many settings in the heart of nature such as the woods, meadows, and beaches. The photos here remind in some ways of the pics I looked at when I reviewed MET Art a little while ago: this stuff is designed for people who enjoy admiring the beauty of the female form, not just whacking off to some bimbo's tits and pussy. However, whereas the pics at MET seemed almost designed for a museum, the photos here at DOMAI definitely have more of an erotic nature to them in my opinion.
Other than the photos, there isn't really anything else to see in the members area of DOMAI that can't be seen on the free side of the site. The Essentials section (featuring a wide variety of stuff from DOMAI's goals, history, and philosophy to film reviews, the site's weekly newsletter, and a beginners photography course), the Articles section (quite a bit of interesting reading if you're into the subjects being discussed), the Stories section (19 pieces of fiction written by Eolake), and the Art section (collections of fine art nudes) all are available for your perusal without having to spend a dime. So, check them out if you're so inclined.
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DOMAI seems like a good site being held back by a bad design. If you're a fan of artistic nude photography, DOMAI offers up a nice-sized archive of good quality pics for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, the organization here is cumbersome at best and makes finding a specific model (based on looks, at least) a very tedious, trial and error task. The simple addition of preview thumbnails for the photosets or model headshots would greatly improve this issue. Also, I'd love to see some high quality videos added to the site in addition to all of the photo content. Right now, there's not a whole lot to check out here in the members area that you can't already take a look at on the free side. Having said all that, and considering DOMAI's very reasonable $14.95/month pricetag, fans of this genre still might enjoy taking a look at what they have to offer here: the models are hotter and the material not quite as sterile as some of the other sites I've reviewed in this genre.
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Please note: for legal reasons, we are unable to provide samples of sexually-explicit pictures.
Although the pictures that we provide as samples are not sexually-explicit and are exempt from 18 U.S.C. Section 2257, you can find the compliance notice for this site here.
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