History of The Nude in Photography

A while ago I wrote an article about the history of Nudes and photography. Images of nudes and sexuality go back through the history of man. As a photographer and artist I find myself constantly listening to both sides of what is a never ending debate of what is and what is not art. Many do not consider nudes art at all, some classify it as porn while others claim that there is no art in taking a picture of a naked body. To me the human body in every way is a work of art. Not only in its physical form but how we are all put together and how each part of us functions. I can never get enough of how our amazing bodies work and how many things are functioning in harmony all the time.

Photography, as we know it today, could be said to have begun in 1839 with the deguerrotype, although the earliest "photograph" in existence dates from 1826 by Niepce, the deguerrotype was the first practical and widespread process.

It is not really known who was the first nude photographer. Some believe that is was N.P. Lerebours (1808-1873) who was photographing artist's models in 1840. In 1841 Voitlander was producing faster lenses that reduced the exposure to 1.5-2 minutes and later in the year new emulsions were developed that permitted exposures of only seconds thus opening up the field for portrait photography and there we have the beginning of the nude.

One of the first to embrace the nude form was Eugene Durieu, an amazing artist. He was commissioned to shoot nudes for Delacroix the painter in about 1850. He was born in 1800 France and lived till 1874 right through the dawn of photography. While many painters thought as photography as a threat to their art Delacroix was one of the first to recognize the difference between camera vision and human vision. He believed that photography was potentially of great benefit to art and artists. Many masters found it easier to paint from the photo than from life.

Pioneering photographers such as Nadar who was know as “the father of photojournalism" began taking pictures in 1853 did nudes for artists. Some of the other photographers in this field were Belloc, Braquehais, and Valon de Villeneuve and such began the era of the naughty "French Postcards".

Gaudenzio Marconi (1841-1885) took over the studio of Belloc and began shooting nudes for the sculptor Rodin. It has been thought by many that Manet's famous Olympia was painted from a photograph, rather than from life.

Muybridge was producing multiple exposures of nudes by the late 1880s in his various scientific researches into motion. Right around 1900 Wilhelm von Gloeden and W. Pluschow rejected the Pictorialist soft focus and produced their nude works in a precise and sharp focus and erotica was born. Even Von Gloeden was mostly known for his male nudes posed in Homeric themes.

By the early 1900’s the figurative nude was well established. We then enter the technical age where advances and new art movements were beginning to affect how the nude was presented. You had Man Ray who embraced surrealism which had a tremendous affect on photography and produced amazing works of art by Andre Kertesz, Frantisek Drtikol, and many others were experimenting with distortion, solarization, and abstraction in the nude form. Edward Weston at that time focused on lighting the body his works on form and light are legendary. By the 40’s nudes, pin-ups and figure photography was as varied and complex as any other art movement and most of the work you see today were established.

So the next time you see an image of a nude body remember the artists who paved the way and you’re looking at a style that’s over 100 years old!

Have great day and an ever better tomorrow, and don’t forget to laugh for life is too short not to smile…

RD

Knight Digital Photography