The History of Glamour photography

[c.shallow]

Does anyone know where I can find out about the history of glamour photography and how and when it 1st started?

[vehelpfulguy]

I bet it started as soon as the camera was invented.

I bet one of the first pictures taken was of a naked woman !

[dundurn]

It did, it was, and the arguments about what constituted art and what pornography started at the same time. It was actually an argument carried over from painting and the printing press but the fact that these photographs were of "real" people rather than an artist's impression somehow intensified the debate.

The term "glamour" to describe risqu� photographs does actually have an origin however. It was brought up in the Balderdash and Piffle programme quite recently.

The revised OED entry now reads:

1958 (title) Glamour Guide supplement..1/6. 1967 J. E. HOLLANDS & L. DANELLS (title) Pocket guide to glamour photography... A handy reference for glamour models and photographers.

[Octavius]

Nude pictures prior to 1835 generally consisted of paintings and drawings. That year, Louis-Jacques-Mand� Daguerre invented the first practical process of photography. Unlike earlier photographs, his daguerreotypes (mirrored negative) had stunning quality and did not fade with time. The new technology did not go unnoticed by artists eager for new ways to depict the undraped feminine form. In Nude Photography, 1840�1920, Peter Marshall noted: "In the prevailing moral climate at the time of the invention of photography, the only officially sanctioned photography of the body was for the production of artist's studies. Many of the surviving examples of daguerreotypes are clearly not in this genre but have a sensuality that clearly implies they were designed as erotic or pornographic images�

Standards of glamour photography have changed over time, reflecting changes in social acceptance. In the early 1920s, USA photographers like Ruth Harriet Louise and George Hurrell photographed celebrities to glamourise their stature and during WW2, pin-up pictures of scantily clad movie stars were extremely popular. Until the 1950�s use of �glamour photography� in men�s magazine�s or in advertising was often illegal, or at least extremely controversial. The boundaries were of course pushed by Hugh Heffner in the early 50�s, and its because of him we now have Sharon, 22, from Croydon (et al) regularly appearing on Page 3 (et al). What larks.