Fine-art nude photography
The distinction between these is not always clear, and photographers, as with other artists, tend to make their own case in characterizing their work,[2][3][4] though the viewer may have a different assessment.
[16] In the work of Judy Dater, one particular photo, Imogen and Twinka, became one of the most recognizable images caught by an American photographer.
[18] After World War I, avant-garde photographers became more experimental in their portrayal of nudity, using reflective distortions and printing techniques to create abstractions or depicting real life rather than classical allusions.
Beginning in the late 1920s Man Ray experimented with the Sabattier, or solarization process, a technique that won him critical esteem, especially from the Surrealists.
Edward Weston evolved a particularly American aesthetic, using a large format camera to capture images of nature and landscapes as well as nudes, establishing photography as a fine arts medium.
One of the first was Irving Penn, who progressed from Vogue magazine to photographing fashion models such as Kate Moss nude.
Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Annie Leibovitz[25] have followed a similar path with portraits of the famous, many of them nude.
The work of Joyce Tenneson has gone the other way, from fine art with a unique, soft-focus style showing woman at all stages of life to portraiture of famous people and fashion photography.
[30] David Hamilton often used erotic themes,[31] but Jock Sturges celebrates the beauty of people in naturist settings without emphasis on sexuality.
When they appear in mainstream consumer magazines such as Popular Photography, PC Photo, and Shutterbug; the editors receive sufficient negative response that they tend to reject the work of serious nude-image photographers.
[40][41] However, due to the local nature of US laws on the issue, books of both Hamilton's and Sturges' photos have been ruled obscene in the states of Alabama, South Carolina, and Colorado.
[44] In June 2008, it was reported in The Age that police would have no basis to prosecute Henson over his photographs of naked teenagers, after they were declared "mild and justified" and given a PG rating by the Australian Classification Board, suggesting viewing by children under the age of 16 is suitable with parental guidance.
[45] Also in 2008, Art Monthly Australia published a nude image of the 6-year-old Olympia Nelson taken by her mother, Polixeni Papapetrou.
According to the then-11-year-old Olympia, she did not believe the photograph amounted to abuse and was upset with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's remark that he hated it.
"[46][47] Body image has become a topic explored by many photographers working with models who do not conform to conventional ideas about beauty.
Leonard Nimoy, after many years photographing conventionally beautiful professional models, realized that he was not capturing individual personalities, so he created a series with women interested in "Fat Liberation".
[49] When a Mapplethorpe retrospective opened at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center in 1990, Dennis Barrie became the first American museum director to be criminally prosecuted for the contents of an exhibition.
