What does the image of a naked human body mean? Beautiful? Ugly - and therefore shameful and forbidden? For centuries, art connoisseurs and critics have debated the intricacies of aesthetic and moral boundaries in nude art.
Conventionally, nudes can be divided into art nudes (art nude - art nude) and erotic nudes. The term art nude is usually applied to photographs where the nudity is shown artistically and the photo itself is equated with a work of art. Art nude in photography is one of the facets of the amazing art of deification of the female body. It is diverse and limitless, like a limitless creative imagination.
Erotic nude (erotic nude) does not set itself the goal of touching the high strings of the human soul, but nevertheless seeks to attract attention and arouse sexual desire by showing a beautiful naked nature. The official "discovery" of erotic nudes happened the day before the opening of the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. As a result of the police raid, agents seized 80 thousand of obscene postcards prepared for sale. These events caused an ambiguous assessment of Parisians: the public was shocked not by the number of photographs taken, but by the degree of their demand ...
Photo by Helmut Newton, Deprivation of Virginity, 1983. © Helmut Newton. Source www.smallbay.ru
Today pornography is called erotic photo, which has low artistic dignity. The purpose of pornography is to provoke gross sexual desire. Pornography is always provocative. Erotica, on the contrary, is aimed at activating the aesthetic perception of the body, it seeks to arouse not animal instinct, but admiration for nudity. Of course, an adequate perception of the genre of art nudes depends on the degree of culture and intellectual baggage of the viewer.
The first masters of art nude.
The first nude photos appeared in the middle of the 19th century. Feminine beauty is as fragile as a Chinese vase, and as short-lived as a blooming rose. Therefore, the desire to capture the charming moment with the help of the art of photography is quite understandable. The more perfect the art of photography became, the more there were people who wanted to photograph nudity. If in 1860 about 5 thousand erotic images were taken in the world, then by 1899 this figure reached 30 thousand.
In 1870, the first erotic postcard in the world was printed in England. At the same time in Europe there was a fashion for photographs of naked savages. Each exalted person considered it prestigious to boast of similar photos among her friends. And the natives themselves were happy to pose for white photographers: they were paid alcohol for every shot. Thus, the chastity of a European woman was directly proportional to the alcohol addictions of the inhabitants of the colonized countries.
Postcard of the late XIX century. © www.tallulahs.com
Postcard of the late XIX century. © www.tallulahs.com
Postcard of the late XIX century. © www.tallulahs.com
Women in photographs of the 19th century filled the secular salons with twitter and set off with their fragile, porcelain beauty the courageous profiles of the brave warrior hussars and cavalry guards. Century XX gave rise to many other female types: here and the commissar tied with cartridge ribbons in a red scarf, and languid haired beauties of the Silver Age, and busty blond post-war sex symbols, and thin big-eyed nymphs, reminiscent of Nabokov's Lolita with its languor and eternal childhood. Naked and slightly draped in shawls, surrounded by countless doves and cupids, women were captured in countless photos so often that curiosity grew into kitsch, and worship of female beauty turned into vulgarity. The revival of the Olympic Games brought to life a new trend in nudes - sports photo erotica. Sports "nudity" has become popular in the Soviet Union. The sportswomen were the necessary surroundings of the May Day parades on Red Square, the theme of the best nude photos of this era.
The natural beauty of Haiti.
On a cold winter evening in 1947, a young, budding photographer left a dressing room full of beautiful models, and boarded a plane heading from New York to Haiti to see and capture the natural, and not “edited by makeup and corsets” beauty. The young man's name was Irving Penn. Today it is a recognized master of photo portraiture, still life and art nude. He is eagerly posed, his exhibitions at the Metropolitan always delight and amaze. It is surprising that Penn photographs only torsos - no heads, no feet, no hands. And the bodies of the models in most cases are heavy, fleshy, with rounded bellies and not fashionable full breasts. Penn shot Haitian women in close-up, so the forms of the female figure were perceived as sculptural, monumental.
Photo by Irwin Penn, Nubile Young Beauty of Diamare, 1969. © Irving Penn. Source www.en.wikipedia.org
Photo by Irwin Penn © Irving Penn
Irving Penn began his career as a painter. But the pedagogical skills of Alexei Brodovich, the legendary photographer, whose career began in Europe, with the Paris school and surrealist artists, made Penn an outstanding photographer. In the 1930s, Brodovich worked for Harper's Bazaar, an American magazine, and taught at the art school Penn attended. For several years, Penn assisted Brodovic. He had the opportunity to study the Brodovich library and, most importantly, most actively absorbed his knowledge and views on art. Brodovich possessed an amazing gift of making a good stranger out of a good stranger, but at the same time he loved to remain in the shade, refused the honorary title of a teacher and called himself an “opener”, meaning that he simply uncorks the student’s imagination,
The second Russian to influence the creative fate of Irving Penn was Alexander Lieberman, who emigrated to New York from fascist Europe in 1941. Lieberman actively collaborated with Vogue and offered Penn the best studio, equipment, assistants and the ability to make photo portraits of any celebrities (then his portraits of ballerina Alicia Markova, composers John Cage and Aaron Copland appeared). It was then that Penna began to be called the Master of the ironic portrait. In parallel, Penn began taking the first pictures of fashion models showing off new models of clothing.
Photo by Helmut Newton © Helmut Newton
Photo by Helmut Newton © Helmut Newton
In parallel with work for Vogue, Penn began filming his nudes. It was a pure experiment - both from the point of view of plastic and from the point of view of photographic equipment. It lasted about three years, and almost every photograph taken became a masterpiece.
Aggressive erotica and underwater "nudity".
The style of photographer Helmut Newton is hotly debated. Some imitate him, others seek to ban the demonstration of his best works. He was called a madman, a pervert, a wife-phobia. He shot women in handcuffs, wheelchairs and children's medical corsets. His work provoked outrage and hatred of feminists around the world.
But at the same time, Newton understood the spirit of the time and the demand for female beauty in all its manifestations. Newton believed that it was the artistic nude who could satisfy the viewer's need for visual and aesthetic pleasure.
Photo by Helmut Newton © Helmut Newton
Naked souls of trees.
Spencer Tunic managed to capture hundreds and thousands of naked people in dozens of cities in the world. At the same time, Tunic never paid his models, they themselves signed up for photo sessions via the Internet. In Melbourne, Tunic simultaneously photographed 4,500 nude models, in Chile - 4,000, and in Montreal - 2,500. The photographer set a record for himself in Barcelona, ??where 7,000 participants came to the shooting.
“As an artist, I have always worked with nudity,” Tunik never tire of repeating in numerous interviews. - The first nude model posed for me on the streets of New York. It was at dawn, on Sunday, when the light was still soft, and the deserted streets between the skyscrapers were like quiet, shady valleys. In this urban “canyon” I felt completely safe: it seemed to me that we were alone, far from prying eyes. Then more and more people began to ask me to photograph them without clothes. And so it came to my mind to invite them to act together ".
The first installation took place in 1994 in front of the UN building in New York; 28 volunteers took part in it. The police were so amazed at what was happening that they blocked traffic on the adjacent streets. The photographer himself believes that his photo session in front of the UN building and in the squares of major cities of the world is not a provocation, but pure art.
Despite the constant prohibitions of the authorities, Spencer Tunic is fighting for his freedom of the artist. Since 1995, Tunic has been arrested five times. In January 2006, policemen appeared at the site of the next photo shoot and arrested several dozen like-minded Tuniks. The photographer appealed to the court, saying that the actions of the city’s authorities violated his constitutional rights. The authorities tried to justify themselves by the fact that under state laws, public exposure is punishable. “State laws do not prohibit photographing nudity,” Tunik objected.
Photo of Spencer Tunic © Spencer Tunick www.spencertunick.com
Among those posing for the artist were students, and respectable fathers of families, employees, teachers, and pensioners. Almost all participants in photo shoots believe that only there, for the first time, participants felt that they were not alone, that there was still love, beauty, and a synchronized beat of hearts in the world.
Unlike his colleague, photographer Jack Gesheydt loves neither urban landscapes nor noisy advertising of his artwork. The only feature that unites the two visionaries is that both invite only those who are ready to appear naked in front of photographic lenses.
The tunic takes off his models against the background of skyscrapers, paved roads, windows, signage and other manifestations of civilization, wanting to emphasize the beauty of the human body. Gesheydt takes pictures in nature and claims that he needs a naked nature only to emphasize the beauty of the tree. Jack Hesheidt’s project is called Tree Spirit. A talented photographer has already done a series of works on which the bodies of people drape the magnificent trunks and branches of old-timers. People and trees make up the giant family tree of humanity, with their Mohammedans and Napoleons.
Photo by Jack Gesheidt © Jack Gescheid www.TreeSpiritProject.com
Jack Gesheidt is a well-known and well-sold photographer. Jack donates a quarter of his income to the fund to save the ancient trees. But, as many volunteers who come to the shooting of Gesheidt say, his main merit is that the artist helps people to feel their unity with nature.
In his case, the art nude can be called art, helping people to feel their kinship with the natural world. Beauty, not edited by clothing and other wonders of civilization, is genuine, natural, harmonious. Art nude is the path to unedited beauty, which we are invited to go along with photographers, artists and their models. Let's go together?
