Victorian Erotic Photography

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Parallel to the British printing history, photographers and printers in France frequently turned to the medium of postcards, producing great numbers of them. Such cards came to be known in the US as " French postcards". [11] French influence [ edit ] Jules Richard published more than 7,000 glass stereoviews in the 45mm ×107mm (1.8in ×4.2in) format, shot in a classic Atrium. [20] Jean Agélou published more than 40 series of paper card stereoviews. During a single posing session with a model, he used a stereo camera for the stereoviews and a normal camera for the French postcards. [21] Later 20th century [ edit ]

A case for the Gallery’s work being part of the tradition of études académiques could be made on the basis of both the woman’s ‘aesthetic’ pose and the relatively discreet fashion in which she is lying. By placing the model on her side with her pubic area and genitals hidden, the photographer has ensured that these ‘forbidden’ body areas are not revealed and that this photograph could, if desired, be included in exhibitions such as those held by the Société Française de Photographie. The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States, Philip Herbst. Intercultural Press, 1997, ISBN 978-1877864421. p.86. Traditional photographic histories (for instance Beaumont Newhall’s The History of Photography) mention early photographic nudes only if they seem securely located in the tradition of the académie, or academic nude study. For an excellent select bibliography of literature dealing with mainly modern erotic photography, see J. H. Pearson, ‘Erotic and Pornographic Photography: Selected Bibliography’, History of Photography, vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 1994, pp. 47–9. In common with the ‘peep-shows’ that developed around the mid-1850s, the stereoscope creates a disarming illusion of visual and psychological intimacy that heightens the viewer’s sense of voyeurism. Although the metallic finish of the daguerreotype somewhat distances the woman from her flesh and blood origins, the illusion of a palpable corporeality is still strong.In France, the tolerance of nude photography in the early 20th century coincided with the popularity of stereo photography. Stereo photography experienced a revival with the introduction of the compact and affordable Vérascope stereo camera by Jules Richard in 1893. Viewing erotic stereoscopic images through a stereoscope provided an intimate viewing experience. Another noteworthy photographer of the first two decades of the 20th century was the naturist photographer Arundel Holmes Nicholls (1923–2008). [18] His work, featured in the archives of the Kinsey Institute, is artistically composed, often giving an iridescent glow to his figures. [17] Following in Mandel's footsteps, Nicholls favored outdoor shots.

Cross, J.M., PhD (2001-02-04). "Nineteenth-Century Photography: A Timeline". the Victorian Web. The University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore . Retrieved 2006-08-23. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link) Mark Gabor: The Illustrated History of Girlie Magazines. Random House, New York 1984. ISBN 0-517-54997-2Nude photographers of the mid-20th century include Walter Bird, John Everard, Horace Roye, Harrison Marks and Zoltán Glass. Roye's photograph Tomorrow's Crucifixion, depicting a model wearing a gas mask while on a crucifix caused much controversy when published in the English Press in 1938. The image is now considered one of the major pre-war photographs of the 20th century. Wheatstone, Charles (June 21, 1838). "Contributions to the Physiology of Vision.—Part the First. On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, Phenomena of Binocular Vision". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Royal Society of London. 128: 371–394. doi: 10.1098/rstl.1838.0019. S2CID 36512205 . Retrieved 2008-02-13.

Early 20th century artist E. J. Bellocq, who made his best known images with the older style glass plate negatives, is best remembered for his down-to-earth pictures of prostitutes in domestic settings in the Storyville red light district of New Orleans. In contrast to the usual pictures of women awkwardly posed amid drapery, veils, flowers, fruit, classical columns and oriental braziers, Bellocq's sitters appear relaxed and comfortable. David Steinberg speculates that the prostitutes may have felt at ease with Bellocq because he was "so much of a fellow outcast." A little later a thousand hungry eyes were bending over the peep-holes of the stereoscope, as though they were the attic-windows of the infinite. The love of pornography, which is no less deep-rooted in the natural heart of man than the love of himself, was not to let slip so fine an opportunity of self-satisfaction. Pornography and erotica predated the camera - blushing art historians may under pressure confess that Titian's Venus of Urbino is clearly masturbating - but the new image-capture technology of the nineteenth century increased the supply and demand for both. The show exposes this flaw in our own thinking, with finely collected data. It intrigues me that so many critics will show respect for the skills and traditions of painting in prior centuries and then ignore the fact that these very same skills had reached their peak by the mid-eighteen-hundreds. The focus instead, for them, is on a sensibility they cannot comprehend because of their ingrained prejudices. They miss the point — that many of the great paintings of this period were both revolutionary in their subject matter and painted like no else had ever painted before. This of course includes a broader range of work than the present show at the Brooklyn Museum could possibly encompass. I think the very fact that this pinnacle of skill lay so close to the 20 th century's deliberate philosophical destruction of those very skills, brought the greatest fury from modern critics on these highly trained artists. It is safe to see the value of masterly painting in other centuries, but a threat to see it so close to home. After all, there are very few today who call themselves artists who can truly paint. Quite frankly, most can't even draw. That must be quite a blow to one's ego if one calls himself or herself an artist. A child would expect an artist to be able to draw. But oh, excuse me, he or she is a child, not a sophisticated adult brainwashed in 20 th century rhetoric. But it is now the 21 st century, and a newer generation is beginning to view of 19 th century and academic art with a fresh and appreciative eye. The Brooklyn Museum should take pride in participating in the reeducation of a new and growing audience. In their creation of erotica, photographers may appear to continue in a tradition whose codes have long been established by painters and other artists. However, there is a significant sense in which photographs are fundamentally unlike works produced in other media, because what we look at in a photograph once existed in reality, no matter how mediated or constructed that reality may be. The sense that we are viewing a person who once existed adds an altogether new element to this genre.In Nude Photography, 1840–1920, Peter Marshall notes: "In the prevailing moral climate at the time of the invention of photography, the only officially sanctioned photography of the body was for the production of artist's studies. Many of the surviving examples of daguerreotypes are clearly not in this genre but have a sensuality that clearly implies they were designed as erotic or pornographic images". [6] Before 1839, depictions of nudity and erotica generally consisted of paintings, drawings and engravings. In that year, Louis Daguerre presented the first practical process of photography to the French Academy of Sciences. [4] Unlike earlier photograph methods, his daguerreotypes had stunning quality and did not fade with time. Artists adopted the new technology as a new way to depict the nude form, which in practice was the feminine form. In so doing, at least initially, they tried to follow the styles and traditions of the art form. Traditionally, in France, an académie was a nude study done by a painter to master the female (or male) form. Each had to be registered with the French government and approved or they could not be sold. Soon, nude photographs were being registered as académie and marketed as aids to painters. However, the realism of a photograph as opposed to the idealism of a painting made many of these intrinsically erotic. [5] This situation is certainly changing slowly, with more authors making use of early daguerreotypes in their articles and books. For an excellent recent publication on how the body has been photographically represented from 1839 to today, see W. Ewing, The Body, London, 1995.