Mark Megahan
The period of world history from 1900 to 1940 saw a lot of changes. Inevitably the boundless progress of the industrial age was reflected in the way erotic images evolved into the million dollar modern adult film and photography industry we have today. As the “vintage” early part of the 20th century began, “thousands of images” were in circulation, generally “showing women in varying degrees of undress.”
Vintage Classic Erotica 1900-1940
Naughty postcards
At the dawn of the 20th century, the most common male enticing pornography available took the form of erotic postcards, mostly from France. In neighboring Britain, the vintage images were highly illegal but “often sold ‘under the counter’ in tobacconists, newsagents and bookshops.” The more illegal they were, the greater the demand. In the beginning the focus was to “capture the female form rather than to titillate.” In order for a photographer to take a racy snapshot, there had to be a painter around somewhere. “Photographers could only produce images of the female nude for use by artists.”
Over the course of the next four decades of the industrial era, vintage erotica gradually made the transition from partly clad to full nude. It was no surprise as artists have been depicting naked women for centuries. Photographers naturally gravitated to “the female nude as their subject matter.” As time went by, the “images became more risqué: clothing left on but unbuttoned; furniture added to suggest a bedroom; the model interacting with the camera by gazing at it.”
As photo technology improved and became affordable, “the authorities lost control.” In the heyday of the erotic postcard, between the 1890s and the 1930s, “they were intended to be collected rather than sent. The postcard size made it easier to hide.” Vintage images were mostly black and white but there was a common way of adding color through “hand-tinting, which could result in much softer colors than real life.” World War Two ended the postcard era, but introduced the world to Pin ups. More on those next time…
