The first nude photos appeared soon after the invention of photography in 1839. Women depicted naked in paintings as figures from mythology or in religious scenes was widely accepted. The realism of photography and the capture of nude models in an everyday environment was experienced as shocking. Nude photography was banned during the French Second Empire. Photographers, models and publishers could be prosecuted and the photographer Félix Moulin was the first photographer to be imprisoned in 1851 for his nude photos[1]. Still, nude photography was very lucrative and the risk of prosecution did not stop photographers from continuing to shoot the images. There exist many hand-colored stereo daguerreotypes from the period 1850-1860. The realistic three-dimensional rendering and the intimate experience of viewing an image with a stereoscope made stereo photography very suitable for the erotic images.
La Belle Époque
In the summer of 1871, France licked its wounds after a number of traumatic events. On 19 July 1870, it had declared war on Prussia, but the war was disastrous for France. The French army was crushed at Sedan by a coalition of Prussia and other German states and kingdoms. The French Emperor Napoleon III was captured and deposed and France became a republic for the third time. To make matters worse, a major uprising broke out in Paris. The uprising was brutally crushed by the French army in May 1871 and claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Parisian citizens.
Better times followed after the war. The French government quickly paid the war payments and the German occupying forces left France. A period of growth, progress and optimism followed. After the First World War, the French would look back on this period with nostalgia and it was given the name La Belle Époque (the beautiful era).
La Belle Époque is roughly the period between 1880 and 1914. Although tensions between France and Germany persisted, it was a period of relative stability in Europe. Prosperity increased, there were many technological innovations and there was room for art and culture.
Working conditions and wages improved, resulting in a higher standard of living for many citizens. A new middle class emerged that could afford to travel and buy luxury goods. New innovations such as electricity, film and the telephone quickly became more common and made life pleasant.
France was regularly the center of attention internationally. In 1889 the World Exhibition took place in Paris with the Eiffel Tower as gateway. Paris had a exuberant nightlife where life was celebrated. Architecture and art were characterised by new styles such as Impressionism and Art Nouveau.
More tolerant
From 1880, erotic photos were still not widely accepted, but were tolerated by the authorities as long as they were not obscene and did not cause public unrest. Photographers and publishers had to be careful and avoid crossing an invisible line and risk persecution. Photographers therefore rarely published under their own name, but used different initials or pseudonyms so that in the event of a violation not all photos led to the same photographer[2-p.31]. Because of the risks, nude photography was known as “risqué photography”. The daguerreotypes of the 1850s were expensive and affordable to few, but with the advent of the dry plate process, erotic photos could be produced cheaply and on a large scale. Erotic photography began to flourish around 1905 and Paris was the center.
Nude magazines
Erotic photography was accepted as a study material for painters and sculptors and this proved to be a good cover for making the images. Several publications with nude photos arose at the beginning of the 20th century, some initiated by the cartoonist Amédée Vignola. The magazines for subscribers were shipped in sealed envelopes to make sure they didn’t accidentally fall into the wrong hands and cause trouble. The magazines flourished during the twelve years preceding the First World War. It’s estimated that 1.268.000 copies were in circulation in 1908[3].
The magazine L’Étude Académique appeared twice a month from 1904 until the outbreak of the First World War. It was sold as study material for artists, but with a subscriber base of 20.000 it may be clear that not all subscribers were painters and sculptors[2-p.29].
The magazine Les Beautés du Nu contained twelve 7x14cm paper card stereoviews with nude photos. The cards could be cut out so that they could be viewed with a stereoscope.
From 1908, nude photography in publications was restricted by the authorities[2-p.36]. Showing genitals was no longer allowed. They were kept out of sight during shooting or retouched. That was not the end, however, and photos of fully nude models remained available and sold through clandestine street trade.
References
- Pellerin, Denis. History of nudes in stereo daguerreotypes, 2020. p.194-196
- Bourdon, Christian. Jean Agélou, de l’académisme à la photographie de charme, 2006
- Lecaplain, Manon. Les premières revues de modèles photographiques de nu à destination des artistes (1902-1914), 2019 – via: chartes.psl.eu