There is a wide range of different styles on boudoir photography as different people and different photographers take there own ideas of the meaning of the photographic genre for boudoir.
We have been looking at Boudoir photographers and its history and evolution over the past 90 years to follow in some ways the boudoir photography style and concepts behind Boudoir Photography have changed.
1920’s’ Boudoir’
In this time period there was not such thing as boudoir photography unless it was an invention of French bedroom photography, and it was known as glamour photography and in some cases erotic photography, which should be distinguished from porno graphical photography which would be sexually explicit in nature and not within the genre. And dating back to the 1800’s there was the pin-up cards.
Taking a wider look at photography; The camera in the early 1900’s was a big bulky thing and required lots of chemicals and a range of tools to work and it wasn’t until the invention in 1913 that the 35mm camera came into existence. This small, portable device made nude photography in secluded parks and other semi-public places easier, and represented a great advance for amateur erotica. Photographers had the new ability to take impromptu photos without carrying around a case of large clunky apparatus.
In the 1920s and 1930s Mandeltook numerous pictures in natural settings, and became known for his exceptional photographs of the female form and followed the “new age outdoor movement”. These were published through the Paris studio and if you recall that in that time period, its was ‘cool’ and exciting to be French and emulate the styles and fashion flare.
The age of the sliver screencame up with a cinematic milestone in terms of how they worked at marketing the stars of the films to sell the films and Glamour grew as advertisers have long linked sensuality with there products. with the sexy photograph of the films stars in an advertisement or to create interest is intended to persuade consumers that if they buy the tickets they get to see this diva.
The standards and style of glamour photography have changed over time, which have changed with the reaction the changes in social acceptance of that type of photography. In the early 1920s, photographers like Ruth Harriet Louise and George Hurrell photographed celebrities to glamorise their curves by utilising lighting techniques to develop dramatic effects in the photos.In December 1953 Playboymagazine was instrumental in changing the world of glamour photography as the first magazine which focused on nude models and was targeted at the mainstream consumer. Playboy published its first edition of with Marilyn Monroe on the cover, and nude photos of Marilyn Monroe inside. Monroe’s star status and charming personality helped to diminish the public outcry. However, until the 1950s, the use of glamour photography in advertising or men’s magazines was highly controversial or even illegal.
Playboy first edition Cover with Marilyn
1940’s Pin-up Girls
During World War II pin-up pictures of scantily clad movie stars were extremely popular among servicemen. Early glamour modeling was often associated with “French postcards”, small postcard sized images, that were sold by street vendors in France In the early 1900s.
The pin-up became popular and depicted scantily dressed women often in playful poses seemingly surprised or startled by the viewer and were typically a Vargas style of photocard. with the popularity of the pin-up many companies used the style as a platform for advertising the products while alluring men with the art work on the cards.
Of course with the advertising companies not wanting to convey a sexual nature or lean towards the pornographic images which would have been unheard of at the time, the nature of the Pin-up was about the sensual side of the woman and was more directed towards a teasing nature to invite the them to play and still retain the decorum of the company and her ‘values’.
1960’s Boudoir
The 1960’s saw the liberation and the invention of the mini skirt, the decade was the decade of love and sexuality.
urge to ‘find oneself’ the activism of the 1960’s and the quest for autonomy were characterised by the changes towards sexual attitudes at the time.
The modern consensus is that the sexual revolution in 1960’s was a typified by a dramatic shift in traditional values related to sex, and sexuality. Sex became more socially acceptable outside the strict boundaries of heterosexual marriage.
We also saw a large jump in photography as pornagraphical images became more public and the firm British reserve or stiff upper lip, gave way to a more relaxed lose approach as views changed. We saw to areas of glamour with the nudest and the models, as well as the sexual images and what was tolerated. The two areas of what was Glamour and What was Pornographical was a large debate that went on though the 1980’s as beach post cards were regarded as pornographic and caused a large outcry as children and holidays were associated with the seaside and these types of cards were on view in many of the beach towns and city shop fronts selling memorabilia and a stick of rock.
What was considered “glamour” has changed with the times. In the 1940s, clothed “pin-up” pictures were “glamour.” Many movie stars were featured in pin-up poses showing them in swimsuits. but in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, photographers such as Peter Gowland started to produced glamour images with partial nudity.
Only in the early 1970’s did some leading men’s magazines begin to show pubic hair and later then genitalia.
1980’s Boudoir
In the 1970s and 1980’swe saw a large debate about the nature of boudoir and glamour photography with a debate raging on for many years about what would be classed as pornographical images and what was called art. The debate reached around the world with the followers of Glamour using the art lovers love for the classical nude paintings as a stand on Pornographic images. At the time many of the museums were attacked by the protesters against the pornographic nature of the images and status of nude men had there ‘bits’ broken off and to meet with some of the public demand many classical art works were removed from the shows.
After the debate the world took a different view of glamour photography and set certain levels of what was acceptable and could be termed glamour.
These were set out as:
Glamour classically and typically could be a skimpy swimsuit, lingerie, or briefs in the case of men
Topless (exposing the breasts)
Artistic nude (exposing the whole body apart from the genitalia)
magazine nude (exposing the genitalia)
“American” / “continental” (showing penetration)
After Playboybroke through, many other magazines followed and this was instrumental in opening the market for the introduction of glamour photography into modern society. Today, softcore nude photographs of models appear in publications such as Perfect 10, or tabloid newspapers such as Britain’s The Sun’s Page 3.
News papers in the 1980’s and as far back as the late 1960’s stared girls in glamour poses and was a feature found in the British tabloid newspapers like The Sun, and consisted of a topless or even nude photograph of a female glamour model.
This sensationalised the newspaper and when the sun relaunched the flagging newspaper in tabloid format on November 17, 1969, Rupert Murdoch began publishing clothed glamour photographs on its third page.
The first edition featured that month’s Penthouse Pet, Ulla Lindstrom, wearing a suggestively unbuttoned shirt.
Page Three photographs over the following year were often provocative, but did not feature nudity but did so in later years.
Gradually, Page Three girls would be featured more overtly topless poses, with their nipples clearly visible. Although these photographs caused a great deal of controversy at the time, and lead to more debate into the what was glamour and what was art. The Glamour images are credited with the increase in sales that established The Sun as one of the most popular newspapers in the United Kingdom by the mid-1970’s.
The feature gained its name from the tradition of publishing the photograph on the newspaper’s third page. Women who model for the feature are known as Page Three girls. Although “Page Three” and “Page 3″ are registered trademarks of News International Ltd, the parent company of The Sun, similar features are found in competing British tabloids (such as The Daily Star) and in other newspapers around the world In an effort to compete with The Sun, the competing Daily Mirror and Daily Star tabloids instituted their own Page Three–like features under different names.
Some critics consider it to be sexist, demeaning, and exploitative, while others regard it as softcore pornography that is inappropriate for publication in a national newspaper. In 1986, Clare Short, MP for Birmingham Ladywood, led an unsuccessful House of Commons campaign to have topless models banned from all newspapers., and typically the Page 3 girl was issued in a Sunday News paper, but was later removed from the Sunday issues.
1990’s Boudoir
During the mid 1980’s we saw the launch of the men’s magazines, on of the most well known is the FHM Magazine that began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Himand later was to change its title to FHM in 1994, although the full For Him Magazine continues to be printed on the spine of each issue.
Founded by Chris Astridge, the magazine was a predominantly fashion-based publication distributed through high street men’s fashion outlets.
After the emergence of Loaded magazine (regarded as the blueprint for the lad’s mag genre), For Him Magazine firmed up its editorial approach to compete with the expanding market and introduced a ’sports’ supplement FHM became one of the best-selling magazines in Britain during the mid to late 1990s, selling more than 700,000 copies per month.
Loaded was founded in 1994 by Mick Bunnage, Tim Southwell and James Brown. In its early days, the magazine’s readership was once memorably described as “50% Sun readers and 50% Guardian readers”. Brown has described the irreverent comic Viz as an inspiration for Loaded.
Loadedcaptured the lad culture of the 1990s ; its glorification of British male “rogues” like Liam Gallagher, Oliver Reed, Paul Gascoigne was only outstripped by its fondness for titillating photo shoots with nubile C-, B-, and occasionally A-list celebrities. In the early covers these were lased with male icons for film and TV.
Loaded’s defined a ‘laddish’ culture that was ground-breaking and was to reverberate around the world. Both magazines were ” lads mags”which grew in popularity for the mixed content of fashion and pictures of girls which they contained, From a personal point of view they were a mix of sports gadgets and the top-shelf mags that was the usual haunting ground of Playboy and, Mayfair, which typically contain photographs of attractive nude women, and sometimes sexual activities including oral sex, sexual intercourse.
The lads mags and the news papers brought forward the readers wivessection where the general public ‘girl next door’ types could submit their pictures and they would go to press. For many of the girls this was a launch pad to a career in Glamour modeling, fame and fortune. for FHM it was the High-street honeys and many of the magazines featured girls from all walks of life.
The Lad’s mag’s are reversing the trend, by emphasizing glamour while showing less nudity, in favor of implied nudity or topless such as with the handbra technique, where a woman hides her nipples and areola by covering both breasts with her own hands. This rolled back the tradition of glamour photography and topless modeling with a more sensual style of photography which we now terms as glamour or boudoir photography.
The Photography within the Mens magazine can cover a range of subjects, wheather this is an interview of a celebrity or a fashion article they do tend to learn on the side of suggestive photography to sell and brings us almost to the full circle on the use of pin-up cards to sell products.
While the pin-ups of the 1940s were typically stars of the silver screen todays media driven and full colour world has opened its doors to almost everyone and the chance of being famous or adored is widely used and accepted, reality TV is some what to blame with the life altering programs like Model Behaviour and big brothers as well as pop idol and Britain’s next top model.
Other TV programmes have also brought to life the realisty and confidence boost of womens bodies with programmes like how to look good naked, which has ushered forward the trend for women who are not size zero to get out there and strut their stuff and look good.
Boudoir Photographers have found that there has been a growth within the boudoir and glamour industry following these programs and women have got in touch with their feminine side. Many women are unaware of Boudoir Photography as it has been for most part of their lives glamour photography or lingerie modeling which has been seen in many catalogues and also we have seen the lingerie sellers such as agent provocateur use a more sexual and desirable photo to sell their products. (and stunning these photos are) Many women want to buy into that life style and look as good as the models and often real people and often go for the professional boudoir and glamour photographers to get just what they want.
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