Traditionally, in France, an académie was a nude study done by a painter to master the female (or male) form. Each had to be registered with the French government and approved or they could not be sold. Soon, nude photographs were being registered as académie and marketed as aids to painters. However, the realism of a photograph as opposed to the idealism of a painting made many of these intrinsically erotic.
The early erotic daguerreotypes Marshall mentions represent the beginning of a long relationship between photography and sexuality. This connection would evolve alongside both photographic technology and social mores, from these covert Victorian images to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and beyond.
These early examples set the stage for photography’s role in challenging and shaping societal attitudes towards the body and sexuality. They demonstrate that, even in its infancy, photography was a medium that could push social boundaries and explore taboo subjects.
