Human Body Photography Art

Author: Editorial Department of China National Photography Art Publishing House
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-08-01
Features: Generally speaking, 19th-century nudes had to be masked by themes such as Greek, Christian mythology, or the courtesans of Middle Eastern palaces, along with exotic backgrounds to create a temporal and spatial distance. Directly displaying the nude was not allowed, let alone the difficulty of finding models at the time. Even prostitutes often wore masks or posed with their backs turned during photography. It is said that the postcards featuring nudes photographed by the artist Mandel sold 500,000 copies at the time. This is a masterpiece of epoch-making significance, marking the birth of a new image of the nude in the 1920s. The female body was no longer merely a conceptual material, a carrier of formal beauty such as proportion and symmetry, or a scientific metaphor or symbol in the composition. The female body was simply nature itself—a living, emotional being—admired for its physical form.