Erotic Photography 120 illustrations , livre ebook

Parkstone International - Alexandre Dupouy

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113 pages

English

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Description

Erotic photo art has lost much of its exquisite soul since Playboy and other girlie monthlies repackaged the human body for mass-market consumption. Like much painting, sculpture and engraving, since its beginning photography has also been at the service of eroticism. This collection presents erotic photographs from the beginning of photography until the years just before World War II. It explores the evolution of the genre and its origins in France, and its journey from public distrust to the large audience it enjoys today.

Sujets

Photography

Sense

Nudity

Movement for Democracy in Liberia

Photographer

Eroticism

Nude

Model

Informations

Publié par	Parkstone International
Date de parution	04 juillet 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781781608630
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	7 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0700€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Alexandre Dupouy

Erotic
Photography
120 illustrations
Text: Alexandre Dupouy
© 2022, Confidential Concepts, Worldwide, USA
© 2022, Parkstone Press USA, New York
© Image-Bar www.image-bar.com
All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world.
Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case, we would appreciate notification.
ISBN: 978-1-78160-863-0
Contents
History of Erotic Photography
Introduction
Photography Conquering Nudity
The Academic Alibi
The Ethnographical Alibi
Habituation and Development
The Euphoric Ecstasy of the Crazy Years
Erotic Bookshops: Between Anonymity and Audacity
Yva Richard versus Diana-Slip
The Pictures of Mr. X
Conclusion
List of Illustrations
“Eroticism lies in the possibility of a movement. It belongs to the realm of the dream.”
Jean-François Somain
No 51
c. 1925. A. Noyer Editions. Gelatin silver print, 24 x 18 cm
History of Erotic Photography
1850-1860
The daguerreotypes available were intended for a wealthy clientele. Afterwards, different photographic procedures, especially on paper, enabled the duplication of images.
1861-1913
Imperial and republican censorship obliged photographers to work in an academic atmosphere, hypocritically aimed at helping the traditional fine arts of painting and sculpture, or in total anonymity, indulging in sheer abandon when intended for lovers of pornography. This anonymity was unavoidable in order to escape the wrath of justice and the discomfort of prisons, but was profitable when it came to illustrating the most shocking subjects.
1914-1918
With postcards, nude photography became a common sight. Hundreds of thousands of these little cards depicted the comforting image of a desirable woman on the front with the tacit approval of the authorities.
1919-1939
With the war over, women, having suffered a number of difficulties and sorrows in remaining at home by themselves, became emancipated. They discovered, among other things, that they were fully capable of doing a man’s job. Their attitudes changed. For the photographer, they no longer posed in an academic manner in order to serve as models for hypothetical artists. They were free and this feeling showed in their images.
Untitled
c. 1855. Auguste Belloc. Hand-painted albumen print mounted on canvas, Stereoscopic View, 8.5 x 16.5 cm
Introduction
The aim of this History of Erotic Photography is to present previously unpublished images, taking care to avoid those well known images taken by famous photographers which have already been the subject of monographs or numerous publications. The selection made here has no encyclopaedic value, and is based on entirely suggestive criteria.
It is neither about presenting an exhaustive inventory, nor a specific objective. Choosing images is, above all, an expression of one’s own personal tastes - one’s infatuation for those women of old-fashioned charms, who, thanks to the wonder of the photographic miracle, have been preserved from the ravages of age and time.
It should be pointed out that the first decades of erotic photography were essentially French.
The main reason for this is that photography was first developed in France, where research into new procedures of iconographic reproduction began in the 18th century. In the 19th century, liberalism was more widespread in France than elsewhere. Licentious French images were imported into Italy, Spain, the United States, Germany and Great Britain, as production in these countries was limited, due to the fact that these works were more severely repressed.
As far as the first century of the history of photography is concerned (1839-1939), all the international collections - both old and contemporary - comprise mainly French images. When the English authors Graham Ovenden and Peter Mendes entitled their work Victorian Erotic Photography , it was, in fact, largely made up of works of Parisian origin from Belloc, Braquehais, Durieu, Vallou and Villeneuve.
When the American Richard Merkin, professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, presented his collection in the work entitled Velvet Eden , the majority of the images were French. The first American images that he selected date from 1920, the first German ones from 1930, and together they only represent a tiny fraction of the total number. One of the leading reference works in the field of erotic photography Die Erotik in der Photographie (three volumes published by half a dozen eminent doctors in Vienna in 1931) brings together the best of the German collections of the period and includes several hundred reproductions, the minority being German and Austrian, whereas the French production accounts for the majority of the period preceding the First World War.
However, this French particularity and specificity lessened throughout the 20th century and has now completely disappeared. The same goes for all themes covered by photography. Whatever the reason, the history of this French specificity could not have been told without the protection of this heritage by a number of passionate collectors. It may be a lewd and playful heritage, but it is representative of the morals and mentality of each period.

Visiting Card
c. 1855. Anonymous. Print on salted paper mounted on board, 6.5 x 10.3 cm

Untitled
c. 1855. Auguste Belloc. Print on salted paper from collodion humid negative, 20.7 x 15.5 cm

Annex 652, Visiting Card
c. 1860. André Disdéri. Albumen print mounted on board, 10.3 x 6.5 cm

Bacchante
c. 1860. Ch. Naudet. Print on salted paper toned with gold, 21.5 x 10 cm
Photography Conquering Nudity
Whether it be painting, sculpture, engraving or lithography, all forms of art have been at the service of eroticism from the beginning. Photography is no exception to this rule. The first photographic processes, the daguerreotypes, were enriched from conception by nudes, which offered an imagery reminiscent of the painting of the time, albeit in a more realistic, though simultaneously cruder, manner.
On 19th of August 1839, Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre, having given up his activities as a painter and set decorator, presented his invention during a public meeting of the Science Academy. It was a huge success and he was granted a pension, which he shared with Isidore Niepce, the son of his partner Nicéphore, who died in 1833.
In exchange, in a display of generosity never to be seen again, the French State acquired the rights of the process and placed them graciously at the disposal of apprentice photographers the world over. Describing the conception of the first photographic images leaves one a little lost for words. How were researchers able to come up with a formula so hard on the sense of smell; that magic formula allowing the reproduction, in two dimensions, of what the naked eye offers on a daily basis? The operation is complicated and the number of manipulations and substances to complete it seems limitless.
In order to produce a daguerreotype, you need a copper plate, which is then silver-plated and cleaned and polished meticulously with pumice stone powder. The plate is then covered with a thin coat of silver iodide in an iodising box. This has to be done by candlelight or with a slightly open door, in order to avoid any premature exposure to light. It is then placed in a dark room, to be exposed for an undetermined period of time, defined only by the artist’s instinct, the result depending on the temperature, humidity, the weather and the exposure time. The plate has still not changed. The image is revealed by holding it above a burner giving off mercury vapours (particularly nauseating and dangerous) that settle on the exposed parts.
The operation comes to an end by washing the plate with very hot salty water. Colour is added by sticking on dry pigments using liquid Arabic gum.
The daguerreotype was followed by the discovery of the ferrotype and ambrotype - positive processes with a one-off print, which, like their predecessor, were expensive to make, expensive to buy and accordingly only intended for a well-off clientele.
The very first images were of landscapes or reproductions of objects. It was very difficult to photograph nudes or take portraits, given that a posing time of several minutes was required.
However, this duration was soon reduced to tens of seconds. While the process became international, France retained its hegemony over the form. This was particularly the case with regards to erotic photography, which appeared immediately.
The first nudes must have been taken as early as 1840. According to Sylvie Aubenas in her preface for Obscenities , a certain Noël-Marie Paimal Lebours, optician by trade, maintains he photographed a nude in 1841, while being very careful about appearing to be the precursor.
The same year, Talbot discovered the calotype. This was the first negative, forefather of our modern celluloid films. As the calotype was on paper, the process was complicated, not very reliable and not very practical.
It was not until 1853, however, that real progress was made when the Englishman Frederick Scott Archer invented the negative on glass, which permitted reproduction on paper in unlimited quantities. From this date on, certain photographers made nudes their speciality.
They mimicked artists and painters by making pastiches of their compositions and the use of accessories, including draping, columns and fabric. In fact, most of the precursors of photography came directly from painting.
The interconnection between the two processes seemed obvious: photographers were inspired by painters, and painters made use of photography. With photography, artists no longer had to put up with models who eithe