Photography of female nudes in the public domain refers to the art and process of taking pictures of unclothed women prior to January 1, 1923. In the United States, all portraits from that era have passed into the public domain. Most are in black-and-white, since they predate the 1935 invention of Kodachrome[1]. Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. ... Body of a woman - digital painting Nudity or nakedness is the state of wearing no clothing. ... Image of a woman on the Pioneer plaque sent to outer space. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the color film. ...

Early beginnings

Nude pictures prior to 1835 generally consisted of paintings and drawings. That year, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre invented the first practical process of photography [2]. Unlike earlier photographs, his daguerreotypes had stunning quality and did not fade with time. The new technology did not go unnoticed by artists eager for new ways to depict the undraped feminine form. 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"[3]. 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Louis Daguerre Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787 - 1851) was the French artist and chemist who is recognized for his invention of the Daguerreotype process of photography. ... L’Atelier de lartiste. ...

The daguerreotypes were not without drawbacks, however. The main difficulty was that they could only be reproduced by photographing the original picture. In addition, the earliest daguerreotypes had exposure times ranging from three to fifteen minutes, making them somewhat impractical for portraiture. Since one picture could cost a week's salary, the audience for nudes mostly consisted of artists and the upper echelon of society [4]. Nude stereoscopy began in 1838 and became extremely popular. In 1841, William Henry Talbot patented the Calotype process, the first negative-positive process, making possible multiple copies [5]. The technology was immediately employed to reproduce nude portraits. Stereoscopy, stereoscopic imaging or 3-D (three-dimensional) imaging is any technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image. ... Jöns Jakob Berzelius, discoverer of protein 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... take you to calendar). ... The Calotype was an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Fox Talbot, using paper sheets covered with silver chloride. ...

French influence

French postcard, circa 1860.

The French pioneered erotic photography, producing nude postcards that became the subject of an officer's letter to President Abraham Lincoln after they were found in the possession of U.S. troops, according to An Underground Education by Richard Zacks. A Brief History of Postcards explains, "A majority of the French nude postcards were called postcards because of the size. They were never meant to be postally sent. It was illegal"[6]. Image File history File links Vintage erotica from http://www. ... Image File history File links Vintage erotica from http://www. ... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ...

Instead, nudes were marketed in a monthly magazine called the "La Beaute" that targeted artists looking for poses. Each issue contained 75 nude images which could be ordered by mail, in the form of postcards, hand-tinted or sepia toned. Street dealers, tobacco shops, and a variety of other vendors bought the photographs for resale to American tourists.

Early 20th century

The warm relationship Bellocq had with his sitters is reflected in their seeming lack of self-consciousness.

The early 1900s saw several important improvements in camera design, including the 1913 invention of the 35-mm or "candid" camera by Oskar Barnack of the Ernst Leitz company. The Ur-Leica was a compact camera based on the idea of reducing the format of negatives and enlarging them later, after they had been exposed. This small, portable device made nude photography in secluded parks and other semi-public places easier, and represented a great advance for amateur erotica. Artists were enamored with their new ability to take impromptu photos without carrying around a clunky apparatus. Image File history File links Vintage pic from http://www. ... Image File history File links Vintage pic from http://www. ... 1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

Early 20th century artist E. J. Bellocq is best remembered for his down-to-earth pictures of French prostitutes in domestic settings in the red light district of New Orleans[7]. 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"[8]. Ernest J. Bellocq (1873-1949) was a professional photographer who worked in New Orleans during the early 20th century. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ...

One of Mandel's early outdoor photos.

Julian Mandel became known in the 1920s and 1930s for his exceptional photographs of the female form. Participating in the German "new age outdoor movement," Mandel took numerous pictures in natural settings, publishing them through the Paris-based studios of A. Noyer and PC Paris[9]. A Johns Hopkins University scholarship was named in his honor. Image File history File links Vintage pic Looks like early 20th century French model Fernande. ... Image File history File links Vintage pic Looks like early 20th century French model Fernande. ... The Johns Hopkins University is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. ...

Another noteworthy nude photographer of the first two decades of the 20th century was Arundel Holmes Nicholls. His work, featured in the archives of the Kinsey Institute, is artistically composed, often giving an iridescent glow to his figures [10]. Following in Mandel's footsteps, Nicholls favored outdoor shots. The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, often shortened to Kinsey Institute, exists to promote interdisciplinary research and scholarship in the fields of human sexuality, gender, and reproduction. The Institute was founded as the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University at Bloomington in 1947 by Alfred...

Many photographs from this era are damaged; Bellocq, for instance, frequently scratched out the faces of his sitters to obscure their identities. Some of his other sitters were photographed wearing masks. Peter Marshall writes, "Even in the relatively bohemian atmosphere of Carmel, California in the 1920s and 30s, Edward Weston had to photograph many of his models without showing their faces, and some 75 years on, many communities are less open about such things than Carmel was then" [11]. Edward Weston (March 24, 1886 - January 1, 1958) was an American photographer, and co-founder of Group f/64. ...

Quotes

• "A woman undressing is like the Sun emerging through the clouds." - Auguste Rodin, 19th century French artist[12].
• "The camera can represent flesh so superbly that, if I dared, I would never photograph a figure without asking that figure to take its clothes off." - George Bernard Shaw, 19th century playwright, critic[13].

Auguste Rodin Auguste Rodin (November 12, 1840 – November 17, 1917) was a French sculptor. ... George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950) was an Irish playwright and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. ...

References

19th century nude photographs tended to feature plump, voluptuous women, frequently with trimmed pubic hair.

• Arundel Holmes Nicholls: Female Nudes.
• A Brief French History of Postcards.
• The Calotype Process, University of Glasgow.
• Cross, J.M.: Nineteenth-Century Photography: A Timeline.
• In the Rain Productions.
• Marshall, Peter: Nude photography, 1840-1920.
• Neville, Cherise Victoria: Important Kodak Milestones(1935-1945), The Kodak Still Cameras.
• Sontag, Susan: The Mysterious Monsieur Bellocq, International Center of Photography.
• Steinberg, David: A Quiet Eroticism Unusual for 1912, Spectator Online.
• Zacks, Richard: An Underground Education, 1999.