Erotic Photography - Later 20th Century

Later 20th Century

Nude photographers of the mid-20th century include Walter Bird, John Everard, Horace Roye, Harrison Marks and Zoltán Glass. Roye's photograph Tomorrow's Crucifixion, depicting a model wearing a gas mask while on a crucifix caused much controversy when published in the English Press in 1938. The image is now considered one of the major pre-war photographs of the 20th century.

During the Second World War, pin-up girl photographs reached a wide audience. Unlike earlier erotic photographs, whose subjects were usually anonymous, a number of well-known film stars posed for pin-up photographs and they were promoted as sex symbols. The emphasis was initially on bare legs, short skirts or swim suits and shapely figures; but in the 1950s such photos started to show naked breasts. Playboy magazine, founded in 1953, achieved great popularity and soon established the market for men's and lifestyle magazines. Erotic photography soon became closely associated with it and gained increasing public attention. Founded in 1965, Penthouse magazine went a step further than Playboy and was the first to clearly display genitals; initially covered with pubic hair. The models looked usually directly into the camera, as if they would enter into relationship with the mostly male viewers. In the 1970s, in the mood of feminism, gender equality and light humour, magazines such as Cleo included male nude centrefolds, usually of celebrities.

The spread of the Internet in the 1990s and increasing social liberalization brought a renewed upsurge of erotic photography. There are a variety of print and online publications, which now compete against the major magazines (Playboy, Penthouse) and cater for the diverse tastes. There are a large number of online erotic photography sites, some of which describe themselves or are so described by others as pornography.