Nude Photography

The nude is one of the oldest motives of the fine arts. The old Egyptians and also the old Indians of the ancient times have already drawn men and women in their natural nudity. It seems that they had have less moral doubts than it is usual over here today. Since the act of photography was discovered, it was also used for the presentation of the nude.

At the beginning, these photos were only used as an artwork for painters and sculptors

and they were not published. By long periods of exposure that were necessary at this time and also by the social ideas on morality of this time, the nude photography has been faced with several drawbacks. First in the twenties the establishment in Germany began. Today, nude photographies are more and more requested for many magazines and for the advertisement. Despite of this, they are of course part of exhibitions, galleries and museums. Three kinds of nude photographies are distinguished between: the full-nude, the semi-nude and detailed views. At the full-nude the model is pictured totally nude and mostly in front of a decent background.

The semi-nude shows the models only partly vested or covered with cloths,

jewellery, paintings or something similar. At the detailed views are only shown parts of the body, for example only the bottom or the breasts of a woman. The edge between eroticism and pornography is in the eye of the beholder. The artistic act of the photograph should stand in the foreground and not the sexual agitation of the observer. The current tendency is that the publicity become more and more open-minded toward this topic.