The naked body has, since ancient times, fascinated artists of all backgrounds. Sculptors, painters and illustrators competed to celebrate the body and represent it in its original state, as evidenced by the works from ancient civilizations, notably Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Prehistoric representations of the naked human body can even be seen on the painted walls of caves and prehistoric statuary art. But if masculine nudes prevailed in Antiquity, especially among the Greeks, the trend has now shifted and it is the female body that has become the
focus
.TThe beginnings of nude photography
An inexhaustible windfall due to its beauty, its singularity and its perception of the materialization of the soul, the naked body has never ceased to inspire photographers since the invention of photography in 1839. Hippolyte Bayard, one of the inventors of the technological prowess which made it possible to create images without the action of the hand, was the first to stage a naked body… actually his own! This self-portrait, entitled The Drowning, was shot in 1840, less than a year after the invention of the technique. Because of its ironic title, this image can be considered as the first staged photograph