Nude photography has been a genre of fine art photography since the inception of the medium in the middle of the nineteenth century; depicting the nude human body with a particular emphasis on form, composition, and the emotional qualities evoked by such. Nude photography has played an important role in establishing photography as an accepted medium of fine art practice. Nude photography should be distinguished from erotic photography, although there has been some genre overlap over the years. Erotic interest, although often present, is secondary, which distinguishes fine art nude photography from both erotic or glamour photography, which focuses on showing the subject of the photograph in the most attractive way; and pornographic photography, which is of a sexually explicit nature and has the primary purpose of sexual gratification for the viewer and which ordinarily claims no aesthetic value in and of itself. Fine art photographs are also not taken to serve any journalistic, scientific, or other practical purposes. The nude is still a controversial subject in all media, but especially with photography due to its inherent realism. The male nude has traditionally been less common than the female, probably due to the dominance of male artists in art history, and more rarely exhibited or published. Most controversial of all are the use of children as subjects in nude photography.
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When you are raising young children, the days are long and the years are short. All our lives, as girls and younger women, we prepare ourselves to be looked at. We grow accustomed to registering —to attracting, evading, or denouncing the male gaze. A nude portrait of a woman older than, say, sixty is an unusual image—even a taboo one. To make such photographs, and, even more so, to pose for them, is an act of defiance. In the course of her career, the photographer Jocelyn Lee has been drawn to nude bodies of all shapes and ages. Skin puckers, crinkles, and sags. Bellies poof and pleat.
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Source: The MET. Source: MOCP. Source: Spencer Alley. Source: The Art Story. Toggle navigation. A brief history of nude photography The naked body has, since ancient times, fascinated artists of all backgrounds.
Jessica Lake does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. A new app can turn anyone into a porn star against their will. The vast majority of victims are women. However, while deep fake technology might be new, the problem certainly is not. The method and tools might change, but the inclination to sexually abuse women by manipulating images has not. Addressing this problem — through law, technology or culture — means acknowledging its long and tenacious history. The invention of photography in the s radically altered the nature of portraiture. Images of individuals became more lifelike. They could also be captured, reproduced, manipulated and disseminated more easily.
