Soft Machines

Richard Dumas is not a portraitist, but a photographer. A truth that is obvious to those who closely watch his work published in the press (among others in Libération) but too often reduce the practice of "viewer" on the grounds that it assumes.
In his book Soft Machines, Richard Dumas discusses the manufacture of sex dolls.
"Matt McMullen, the 33 year old ex hard-rocker musician who makes the RealDolls (Rolls Royces of the sex-dolls according to the ads) claims he sculps his prototypes not from life, or models, "just memories of old Playboy centerspreads" - rather a scary notion, when one meets him in his sex boneyard, amidst sides of women hanging from hooks and chains, like motor-blocks in a garage. His sufer-butcher stare is colder than theirs. But the RealDoll reality, when one checks out the factory where they are made, in a small industrial park near San Marcos, California, is more downhome. Mc Mullen's wife, from their home, gussies up the Dolls in trashy lingerie before sitting them inside their packing crates, which look eerily like porta-potties. The sister-in-law, a would be actress from Canada named Shelly Couture, takes care of marketing, sales and mailing. She also doubles as a baby-sitter. "

Philippe Garnier