How have/are the attitudes toward nude/topless photography changing?

Stu H said

How long after the invention of the camera was the first nude/topless image taken.

About six months. Literally 1840 -- first (male!) nude selfie.

admin please can you lock this thread or delete it. Thanks

I think traditional art nude will die out, pretty much with my generation, at least as far as the UK is concerned.
Still thriving in Europe, the USA and Australia.

It was partly about producing a piece of art that could be printed and stuck on the wall.
That's dead now.

Modelling for soft (or not so soft) porn is far more lucrative, less work and safer if the woman shoots herself.

Edited by Huw

Allesandro B said

admin please can you lock this thread or delete it. Thanks

can't you delete it?

sd photography54 said

Allesandro B said

admin please can you lock this thread or delete it. Thanks

can't you delete it?

Unfortunately not, that's one of the problems with starting a post you have no control what happens afterwards.

It's a fair point. Whenever someone has a go at me it's never considered by the "attacker" that the model is there of her own free will working and even though her services are being paid for, she is still welcome to stop and leave at any time.

 Allesandro B said

...I think art nude as a genre will remain but the more "racy" side of photography will/is dying off and its' possible that as the photographers that shoot that style on PP literally die off that element of internet modelling will die with it...

Just my opinion, but in the UK I don't think Joe Public differentiates between art nude and other forms of nude. To the majority of the UK's Joe Public, any nudity automatically relates to sex.   :(

random said

I think it’s difficult to say as it depends which channel you look at. E.g. Amateur Photographer stopped showing nudity ages ago and the current editor decries even the most arty nakedness. But channels like PP never used to exist and seems to be going well in general. On broadcast TV there’s more nsfw stuff than ever, although it’s not artistic. Maybe traditional glamour photography will die out?

Not sure how long ago is 'ages ago', but I had a four-page spread of art nudes in AP about six or eight years ago. 

Stu H said

...Has attitudes changed? Nope ... its still seen as a seedy activity done by dirty old men, wearing trench coats with holes in the pockets.

Edit ..

Its always seen as male photographers exploiting young girls.

It's never seen as the models are doing it of their own free will and [many] are making a happy living from it.

 

^ Wot 'e said. 

Edited by Orson Carter

I see that the thread might get locked / vanish, but I'll add an observation:

I occasionally go to a life drawing session. I'd place most of the people drawing in their 20s or 30s and a more even gender distribition than most camera clubs.

I go to local artists' open houses when they happen. There's often some life drawing or painting there. Often not made by old men.

So I'd say that the body as a subject for art still has a life, even if the fashion in photography and settings in which photos are made and shown moves on. I daresay photography can be part of that, even if the Pirelli calendar on the office wall is no longer a thing.

between_beyond (Dan) said

I see that the thread might get locked / vanish, but I'll add an observation:

I occasionally go to a life drawing session. I'd place most of the people drawing in their 20s or 30s and a more even gender distribition than most camera clubs.

I go to local artists' open houses when they happen. There's often some life drawing or painting there. Often not made by old men.

So I'd say that the body as a subject for art still has a life, even if the fashion in photography and settings in which photos are made and shown moves on. I daresay photography can be part of that, even if the Pirelli calendar on the office wall is no longer a thing.

Good to hear that. I find it heartening. 

I'd like to think we are going to be more prudish, but I doubt it. The internet isn't going anywhere. 

I'd like to go back to a time when a glimpse of stocking was something shocking. 

Mark671

[Snip]

I'd like to go back to a time when a glimpse of stocking was something shocking.

[Snip]

I wonder just how many men, like me, in their 50's owe an almost fetish-like preference to women in stockings due to Benny Hill and Pams People?

between_beyond (Dan)

I think that the nude as a still life drawing / painting has had a *respectability* about it that the young upstart that's photography will never match.

Guess it's down to the aforementioned urn.

Britain is a funny little country with it's own unique blend of public prudishness and private degeneracy... 

Bit like America with less money and less guns.

Except you can still sell "Art nude" prints for big money in America. Even more so if they are male art nudes.