The human body has always been a major topic of inspiration for artists, we find representations painted on the walls of the caves and prehistoric statuaries. In antiquity it was the male nude, especially among the Greeks, but today the trend has largely reversed and the female body is increasingly emphasized.
From antiquity and the Middle Ages, the nude has grown during the Renaissance.
Represented through painting on canvas, fresco, sculpture, the nude was a subject in its self and expressed a new aesthetic in which the artists reflected the evolution of society.
At a time of technological advances, the photograph in turn appropriated the nude. Although associated since its inception in erotica and female models, nude photography is not limited to this image. In the mid-twentieth century, some magazines started to mix artistic and erotic to deflect the problems of censorship still very present at the time, not hesitating to present to the general public as artistic photos that were actually much closer to erotic. David Hamilton is especially known for his portrayal of ethereal female nude body, color and black and white. The development of the pornography industry has also inspired artists.
This is the case for Jeff Koons who created several works for his series Made in Heaven with his partner Cicciolina in sex scenes.
The American Spencer Tunick has photographed masses of naked bodies, featuring a dramatic group of thousands of naked people, all volunteers in public places.
The development of digital imaging techniques (editing software such as Photoshop) was followed by new themes for reflection on an increasing plasticity and interchangeability of representations of the body.
Today the vision of the body changed and people are looking for the "perfect body". With the proliferation of nude pictures in advertising (highly retouched and far from artistic), photographers have the great duty to educate people about what is a real body.