I had the opportunity to interview Agnar of Agnar's Photoden. Agnar is someone who has been a fixture within the erotic hypnosis community for several years in addition to running a successful web site. I found his answers to be quite informative as well as candid. Please enjoy the interview.

Stagehand: You yourself have done some great interviews on Agnar’s Photoden, what does it feel like to have the tables turned so to speak and become the interviewee? Have you been interviewed before?

Agnar: It feels pretty weird really, I’ve never been interviewed before, and didn’t think anyone would be interested in what I had to say. But I’m full of opinions so I’ll do my best to be interesting. By the way, thanks for thinking my interviews were great. *grin*

SH: How did you first become involved in the erotic hypnosis community?

AG: It would have been 1995 or 1996, I finally lived on my own, had a computer, had the internet, so I started doing searches on stuff that i’d always been interested in, namely Female Domination, and Mind Control. I found MC Stories, an online ad for Goddess Marquesa, and an interactive website by Soforia the Enchantress.

Not right away of course but after some fiddling with my search terms, trial and error. I ordered a tape from Soforia and joined Her private club, and began tearing through MC Stories like crazy. I soon also found my way to yahoo clubs, and groups, and my connection to the community just kept growing.

SH: I talk more about your site in the article that accompanies this interview, I will say here that I am a bit overwhelmed with the volume and quality of material that you have available on the site. The Photoden has been around for much if not all of the time I have been around the erotic hypnosis community. When did you start the site and what inspired you to do so?

AG: Thanks, I try hard to put out high quality work on Photoden but it’s always nice to know someone thinks I’ve succeeded. I found myself drawn to the “Turning the Tables” photo manips early on, the ones in which the woman in the photo was the Dominant character. But there has always been far more manips of women being controlled, rather than controlling, and I often found the FD manips lacking enough storyline for my tastes.

In mid-2001, when the tech bubble was bursting, I was laid off from my LAN Admin job and suddenly found myself with lots of spare time. So I tried my hand at writing some longer, more story-based manips. I posted them in yahoo clubs back then, and found some loved them, but a few had to spend lots of energy hating them.

I enjoyed it myself, so I used some free web space I had to put up a very simple site. This was all from around July of 2001 to late Sept. 2001. In October, Soforia and I were chatting and in the course of the chat She said I ought to try to make a living at something I loved doing, as I was mid-job search still.

So I went for it, I spent a month or so creating new content, designing a basic site and buying a domain name and hosting. And in November of 2001 the first full blown pay version of Agnar’s Photo Den was born. So my love of FD mind control, writing, and advice from Soforia, combined with being out of work at the time, inspired me to open the site

SH: Given the timing, and I may be off base if so correct me, but it seems that you may have been one of the first to use the concept of photo manips. Please tell me how that came about.

AG: I wasn’t close to the first, others were certainly doing manips before me. The one thing I think I have consistently done differently from others is that my manips are often not “manips” in the strictest sense. I see photos of women and I tell the story that comes to me, if that woman were a Dominant, Mind Controller/Hypnotist. I rarely want or need to manipulate the photo, my talent lies more in the writing of the story.

The ones before me most often seemed much more focused upon the manipulating and editing of the photos, adding effects and gadgets. Which takes a lot of talent, but it never much appealed to me personally. When I was a member of Privatepages.com, really the first pay site for photo manips, I often found myself left wanting more storyline, and so I decided to try it myself. Not just show a photo with the word “Obey” on it, but to really show the whole scene play out, as the reader slowly falls under the control of the lovely hypnotist.

SH: What do you consider to be your primary skills and talents involved in your work?

AG: Certainly my imagination and writing talents are what I use most often. But my overall creativity is tested, in keeping my work fresh so I’m not doing the same scenes over and over again.

And my um, well political skills are also tested, as I negotiate permission to use photos of various Dominas, hypnotists, models, etc. and making sure they are happy with the end product, while also trying to keep my visitors and customers happy.

But I’ve gotten lucky, the site has given me reason to get to know many great women that I might otherwise not know.

SH: Share with me if you would the types of activities that are involved in the day to day running of a site like your Photoden.

AG: I have a really loony, not so efficient work process. Let’s start from the day after I post a new update, so it’s like starting fresh. That first day I catch up on emails and other messages I fell behind on while completing the content update. I go looking for new photos for possible manips from the various sites I have permission to get photos from, the models, Dommes, amateur sites, etc.

I spend the next 2 days or so sorting through the photos, keeping the ones that might work, deleting the ones that won’t, just by feel. I then go through the “keepers” a few more times, each time, trying to imagine the storyline, and winnowing it down to the ones that actually spark an idea. I then add the new pics that seem promising; to the ones I haven’t used yet and run through them all at least once more.

Then I walk away from it for a day or so, find other stuff to do while my brain sorts stuff out. I then come back and usually, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to work on specifically, but not how they’ll turn out. I have a basic idea, sometimes even a storyline, or parts of the dialogue, in mind already but the manips do not always turn out as I imagine them beforehand.

I sit down and I start writing, with the photo I’m writing for open on the screen, so I can flip to it as I go. The photos don’t talk to me exactly but, I have found myself changing stories as I go because it felt right when I looked at the pic again. It can take me up to a week sometimes, depending on the amount of content and how freely my ideas are flowing, to write up all the stories.

Then I get to work proofreading and assembling the manips, creating any animation, assembling any flash content, and finally coding the new pages for the website. I set it to upload and I fall asleep for about 10 hours because by then I’m creatively drained.

Of course, during most of this time, I’m checking emails and messenger, resolving any problems for customers, answering any questions, making sure the previous update is up and working properly. There can be a good bit of downtime in there, but usually because my creativity isn’t recovered and I need a bit of time away from thinking about the site, so I read or watch DVD’s.

SH: What are some of your major accomplishments or items in your work for which you are most satisfied?

AG: Well, I really love every piece I’ve put on my site, if I don’t like something I’ve written, then it never gets to the website, it sits in a folder on my hard drive, in case I should ever figure out how to make it better.

But, being more specific, since I love the storytelling aspect so much, I really love the longer, multi-picture stories I’ve done. They allow me to build a bit larger story arc and be more descriptive. I also really am attached to the work I’ve done featuring actual HypnoDommes, as I try to capture something of their own style in the work.

That requires me to be more thoughtful and creative to capture the right feel and wording. And lastly, the more interactive flash stories and audio manips on the site. I love seeing, and taking my work to another level.

SH: Your site covers a broad range of visual material that is not only erotic hypnosis related. However the focus of this eZine being focused on that genre I will of course steer in that direction. You have several HypnoDommes featured on your site as well as interviews of many. I would say that is a significant and enjoyable part of you site. Please share with me if you would how you feel the HypnoDommes you have worked with have contributed to the success of your site.

AG: Oh wow, the site wouldn’t be half what it is without the HypnoDommes I’ve known, and featured on the site. The suggestion for the audio manips was actually made to me by Lady Inamorata, early on. She voiced some early celeb manips I did, which are now unfortunately out of circulation as I don’t do celebrity work now.

Many of my ideas and phrases have come to me after reading, or listening to a HypnoDomme. And of course, my personal interactions with them have inspired and enflamed many of the fantasies and scenarios, which I in turn have used in my work. And that doesn’t even count all of the amazing content and photos, and moral support I’ve gotten over the years from so many of these amazing Ladies.

Inamorata, and Soforia really helped me get the site started, Lady Lita has been an immense source of support and encouragement, as well as inspiring some of my finest work and providing lots of wonderful content, Nikki Fatale, Isabella Valentine, Diamond Diva Princess… So many have helped me with content, audio and video clips, photos, advice, and moral support.

I don’t mean to leave anyone out but it’s really a long list, so I’m sure I will, purely by means of my bad memory. But without the HypnoDommes, I don’t think my site would have existed to begin with.

SH: Other than the normal pleasantries exchanged in preparation for this interview, you and I have never really talked except perhaps in a forum thread or two. While for most of the time my involvement in the erotic hypnosis community until recently has not been very public, yours has and I come to know a few things about you mostly from posts you have made in public forums. I would most certainly say that you impress me as someone of principle as well as someone who tends to treat others with respect. Is that a fair assessment?

AG: Well, I try to be a good, principled person, and try to treat others with respect. But I cannot claim to always succeed. I can be quite the grouch sometimes, and I can have a short, fiery temper. So sometimes my principles and temperament add up to my being a pain-in-the-ass loudmouth. I know I have certainly rubbed some folks the wrong way, but I would hope that most can see, and understand, that I always mean well, and always try to do the right thing.

SH: Again from public posts you have made I know that you are devoted to Lady Lita. I have had to pleasure of enjoying some of Her work through a membership in Her Shrine in the past as well as occasionally visiting Her group and I am very impressed. I sense that She is someone quite remarkable.

I realize that many things are likely private and certainly respect. However I do feel this is a unique opportunity and would like to ask if there is anything you would like to share publically about your relationship with Her and perhaps what She means to you in your life.

AG: Well, perhaps the best way to answer that in short, is to point you to my birthday present to Her. I have had the honor of spending time with Her twice, a short trip to Florida when She vacationed there, and 3 weeks in England when She allowed me to stay in Her spare room and acted as tour guide for the wonderful sights in that area.

We felt a connection I think very early on, and have grown to be true friends, alongside the Goddess/sub relationship. Even now I’m trying to figure out how soon my finances would allow another visit to the UK. What I wrote in Her present, says the rest about what She means to me I think.

SH: You are someone who has been actively involved in the erotic hypnosis community for quite some time. How do you feel the community has evolved over time and where do you see things going?

AG: Well, when I started out online, it was mostly ICQ and yahoo chatting, and yahoo clubs about the subject. There were only a few sites, and no independent communities like Inraptured. It put a crimp in things, briefly, when yahoo killed clubs, and hid adult groups, making the hypnosis groups tough to find. But that actually led, I think, to many of the websites to be born, and to be expanded upon.

The community has clearly grown by leaps and bounds in the number of people it reaches. More people stumbling across that one site that tells them they’re not crazy to find this stuff so damned erotic, that they’re not alone. And the content and material available to the subjects today is simply amazing, so much variety and quality, videos and audios to suit almost any sub-fetish, and so much purely erotic hypnosis. And it seems like a new site pops up weekly. So long as the government takes no interest, this is a great time for being an erotic hypnosis fan or fetishist.

SH: In addition to your Photoden do you have any other projects going on? Anything in the works or getting ready to launch that you would like to talk about?

AG: Well, nothing specifically hypnosis related. I run a site for the financial domination fetish that I’m trying to expand, and I just started a toplist called Mesmerizing Women, which is for any Woman-run, or woman focused website. It’s open to models, hypnotists, magicians, webcam models, Dominas, nearly anything. Because I have long been of the opinion that women are naturally hypnotic. Most of them just don’t know it. *smile* Anyway, the toplist is just a way to hopefully bring the ladies new sources of traffic, visitors that otherwise might not see their sites.

SH: I would like to express my gratitude for your participation in this interview, it has been a pleasure. Are there any final words you would like to add?

AG: Thanks for wanting to interview me, hope I haven’t proven too boring a topic. In parting, I would just like to let everyone know that feedback and appreciation, is a vital component of the whole process. Not just for me, and my site, though I definitely appreciate knowing what my visitors think of my work. But also the HypnoDommes, and people running free sites, like this one, and Inraptured. Knowing that the hard work is appreciated really does provide a boost to keep us going.

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