I'm including this one, despite the very restrained nudity, because it has to be one of the very oldest photographs in my collection. I've not only had it a very long time, but it was made in 1840! It is a self portrait of Hypolite Bayard depicting himself as a drowned man. Mr. Bayard must have spent a lot of time outdoors fully clothed as only his hands and face are tanned. The hat may be just a prop.
This is depressing.
ReplyDeleteOh, I agree. I published it for its historical value.
DeleteTwo historical facts I have for some odd reason always found fascinating are that within 40 years of Benjamin Franklin's death (1790), steam ships were ploughing the Atlantic and that Napoleon Bonaparte died a mere five years before the first photograph was taken (1826). As the creatures of the Enlightenment neither would have been surprised or offended by male nude photography. As the last victims of Victorian prudery and worse, it fell to us to cast off the last vestiges of that world which fortunately no longer holds the vast and overwhelming majority of us in its sway.
ReplyDeleteAll true, but vigilance is still required, especially in the USA where rights won could be taken away.
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