It’s practically impossible to separate nude photography from eroticism, even in a fine arts perspective.  And in fact it’s that thin line that pushes most bodies of work.  Nudes have been a part of photography from almost its origins.  In the mid-1850s, there were already a number of Daguerreotypes in existence that dealt with everything from classic nudes as a stand-in for art students to erotic, and essentially pornographic, images of prostitutes at work.  Photographers such as Félix Moulin were even dragged into court in the early 1850s for such ‘obscene’ art.

The timing of this must be seen from a larger perspective.  Photography came of age during the Victorian era, were strict moral and social codes were the norm.  It was also when other artistic fields were also creating controversy over nudes.  Manet’s Olympia (1865) for instance was a take on Titan’s Venus of Urbine (1538) but using a Parisian prostitute in the place of the goddess. It caused such an uproar at the salon that police had to put guards around the painting to protect it.

These two paintings highlight easily the subtle differences in what a nude portrait is, regardless of the medium.  Nudes are fragile, revealing, open  They can express a great deal of meaning within a very small parameter.  Nudes can be some of the more difficult subjects to photograph because a slight movement in the model can create drastically different messages and imagery.

These subtle differences in perspectives play upon each other.  It’s the ability to control them, restrain them, that create the more amazing images.  If you look at the work of Sally Mann, you can get a great understanding of this.  Mann photographed her three children during the 1980s often in the nude.  Their posing is an amazingly thin line between eroticism (and therefore in this case has been criticized as child sexual exploitation) and innocence.  Her techniques in lighting and compositions are virtually flawless exposing the context of the images for what they are, a general conflict in most people between the view of a child having a non-sexual understanding of themselves and that of an adult (that is, you the viewer) having far too much of a sexual understanding of the world around them.

There is also Robert Mapplethorpe, well known for his controversy involving homo-erotic poses.  His controversy was centered the public art funding for his images based on the male nude and very erotic subject matters.  But a closer look at his larger collection, nudes of Patti Smith (his ex-girlfriend) and of his statues of nudes, show a far deeper understanding of those artistic lines.  It was only when he tried to become more direct and lost that restraint, that he found himself in direct controversy.

The majority of still-lifes have their root in nude imagery as well. Edward Weston, who photographed during the 1930s was a master of both.  His 1930s print of the inside of a pepper is unmistakably similar to that of a male nude from the back.  More erotic imagery can be found in his prints, Artichoke, and Shell (both 1927).  His work is beautiful, and its erotic nature is very transparent. 

Today, nudes seem far less controversial then they have been, they’re even become more normal and common. The pop superstar Madonna put out a coffee table book of her nude in 1992, titled Sex and it hardly caused a stir outside of its marketing efforts.  Porn stars regularly fill mainstream men’s magazines, and thousands of nude images can be easily found on Google’s image searches.  But nudes as an art form will endure, especially those that cross the boundaries of emotional ties, like Sally Mann, and political/social contexts, like Mapplethorpe’s.

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Terry Michael started working with a photojournalist while in high school, and over the years has worked for a variety of national media clients, including AOL and NBC. He currently operates a studio in New York that specializes in wedding and fine art photography. His work
has been shown in galleries throughout the northeast, and he has also been featured on the television series "Whose Wedding is it Anyway?" which airs on the Style Network.