Sahana Shridhar, Class of 2022, Industrial and Labor Relations

The following images are two technicolor negatives. The negatives depict a nude woman against a white backdrop, presumably in a photography studio. She is standing and holding a patterned blanket in the first negative, and sitting while draped in pearls in the second negative. The identity of the woman is unknown.

The photographs were taken in the 1960s by an anonymous photographer engaged in the philosophy and practices of nudist culture that was growing as a part of the counterculture movement. Using the knowledge learned at the New York Institute of Photography, this photographer documented the daily life of his friends and lovers in nudist spaces.

The technicolor negatives shed insight into the budding and evolving nudist ideologies and communities in the 1960s and 1970s. This era of the nudist movement sought to redefine nudity as healthy and normal. The woman’s nakedness in the negatives is presented in a manner that is not inherently sexual. Rather, her nudity is an artistic element that, combined with her pensive expression and lack of eye contact with the camera, illustrate a solemn portrayal of beauty.

The negatives also point to the nudist cultural acceptance of one’s body. Nudism, at its core, values naturality and acceptance of one’s body. This ideal is echoed through both images of the woman’s body, as her pubic hair is included, thus representing her nudity in its most natural state. The casual and accepting nature of the nudity in the photo negatives is also reflective of the counterculture movement and its values of self-acceptance and the rebellion of traditional, conservative societal norms.

The preservation of these technicolor negatives provide a rare glimpse into nudist culture and early photography.

Source

Anonymous Nudist and Erotic Photography Collection, Anonymous, 1960s. Collection, Box 6 and Technicolor Box Negative Slide 6, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Location K-116-c-8-B

https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07781.html

Bibliography

Hoffman, Brian. “‘A Certain Amount of Prudishness’: Nudist Magazines and the Liberalisation of American Obscenity Law 1947-58.” Gender & History 3, no. 22 (2010). Accessed October 3, 2021.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-0424.2010.01611.x?casa_token=tLn9kPMIjEIAAAAA%3A-qRHAEQnVXj73TlN7jhXOW2VC7Bd4xlc0F2eGhfDKTo-md7ATml_ugkq_gvVE_uawPpa-NYWifbH.

Hoffman, Brian. Naked: A Cultural History of American Nudism. New York: New York University Press, 2015.

Woodall, Ellen E. “The American nudist movement: From cooperative to capital, the song remains the same.” Journal of Popular Culture 2, no. 36 (2002). Accessed October 3, 2021. https://www.proquest.com/docview/195370558?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true.