Written by admin on 18 November, 2009 – 9:52 pm -
It’s probably true that the history and development of erotic postcards runs in parallel with that of erotic photography. Now let’s get things straight here, we are talking about erotic photography and definitely not pornographic photography. The erotic type shows its subjects in a sexually suggestive, or even sexually provocative manner, but does not as pornography does, show them in a sexually explicit manner.
Prior to the development of the first practical method of photography by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre in the 1830s, pictures of any description consisted of drawings or paintings. Of course this new technology did not go unnoticed by artists keen to find new, simpler ways to depict the unclothed feminine form. Although the Daguerreotype was a vast improvement upon painting or drawing pictures it was probably the invention in 1841 by William Fox Talbot of the calotype process (by which multiple copies could be made) that really saw the start of erotic photography and hence erotic postcards.
Just as they had pioneered photography our French cousins were also at the forefront of erotic photography, which of course included the production of nude postcards. Although called postcards, they were never intended to be sent in the post – instead they were marketed via a monthly magazine called La Beaute. Each issue contained 75 nude images, which could be ordered by mail in the form of postcards hand-tinted or sepia toned.
Moving into the twentieth century, the development of photographic technologies meant that smaller portable devices were possible, which in turn meant that nude photography in the open air (albeit discretely) became possible.
I guess that the golden age of erotic postcards could be described as being around the period of the first world war, up to and including the 1920s. During this time the likes of Julian Mandel, John Ernest Joseph Bellocq, Rudolf Koppitz and Arundel Holmes Nicholls were all busy taking nude photopgraphs of their subjects. Mandel in particular, arranged his models in classical poses and took his photopgraphs both indoors and outdoors. Bellocq favoured more naturalistic settings and his sitters (including French prostitues in New Orleans) appear natural and more relaxed - if indeed that is possible.
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