Nude photography

Nude photography is a style of art photography which depicts the nude human body as a study. Nude photography should be distinguished from glamour photography, which places more emphasis on the model and her/his sexuality, and treats the model as the primary subject. Nude photography should also be distinguished from erotic photography, which has a sexually suggestive component. Nude photography is also distinguished from pornographic photography, which is of a sexually explicit nature.

Many photographers consider an art nude photograph to be a one that studies the human body, rather than the person. A photograph of a person that is meant to be recognized is called a portrait, and nude photographs often do not show a face at all. Nude photography is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. As an art form, nude photography is a stylized depiction of the nude body with the line and form of the human figure as the primary objective. Photographers sometimes use extremes of light and shadow, oiled skin, and shadows falling across the body to show texture and structure of the body.

Early photographers often depicted the nudity of women like the one we see here by Félix-Jacques Moulin. Many, like Edward Weston, Ruth Bernhard and Jerry Avenaim, preferred to depict the lines of a body as a piece of art. They imported from the terminology of painting the terms art nude and figurenude to avoid suggestions that their works were erotica or pornography.

Nude recreation

Nude recreation refer to recreational activities which some people engage in in the nude. Such activities can take place in private spaces, such as in a person's own property or in a naturist context, but also in public areas. Activities in which people engage in the nude include hiking, running (in some contexts this is referred to as streaking), swimming, cycling and yoga. More passive activities include sauna, hot springs, and sunbathing, such as at a nude beach.

When such activities take place in a public context, they are subject to laws and social attitudes to public nudity. Most nude recreational activities take place in private places, such as naturist resorts, and when on public lands participants try to be discreet to minimize any potential discomfort it might bring to an accidental passerby. Some public places have been set aside for the use of those who wish to engage in recreational activities in the nude, such as nude beaches.

European nudist culture

In the Nordic countries, with their sauna culture, nude swimming in rivers or lakes was a very popular tradition. In the summer, there would be wooden bathhouses, often of considerable size accommodating numerous swimmers, built partly over the water; hoardings prevented the bathers from being seen from outside. Originally the bathhouses were for men only; today there are usually separate sections for men and women.

Motivation

People participate in activities in the nude for various reasons. Many consider nude out-of-door activities to have health benefits. They point to health benefits of sunlight for some skin conditions and the body's production of vitamin D. Some nude proponents argue that those who take part in nude activities are often more relaxed about their nudity and body image.

Away from their private property, many people have the first experience of a clothes-free recreation activity at a nude beach, at a friend's place in the woods, or a party on the shore or skinny dipping.

Recreational nudity is generally associated with the naturist movement, though some people participate in activities without membership of naturist clubs or adherence to the naturist philosophy.

Swimming and sunbathing

Nude swimming and sunbathing are the most common nude recreational activities. These can take place in the privacy of a person's backyard or pool or that of a friend, at a naturist facility or at a clothes-optional beach. It is not uncommon for private clubs to have nude swimming on a male-only or a female-only basis. Other water activities in which some people engage in the nude include snorkeling, diving, canoeing or kayaking (sometimes called canuding).

World Naked Bike Ride

Since 2004, World Naked Bike Rides have taken place all over the world involving thousands of people. These take place in mostly western cities, where cyclists ride either partially or totally nude in a light-hearted attempt to draw attention to the danger of depending on fossil fuels.

Naked bungee jumping

The performer Billy Connolly is reported to have done the 134m Nevis Bungee Jump naked, during his 2010 World Tour. Nevis, near Queenstown, New Zealand and other jumps in the area appear to waive the change for nude participants.

Quotes

Body Acceptance is the idea, Nude Recreation is the way. -Lee Baxandall. Popular motto of The Naturist Society

Every civilized nation has nude beaches. That's a mark of a civilized nation. -Lee Baxandall from video: The Beginner's Guide to Skinny Dipping. The Naturist Society. Fast Forward Images, Inc. 1991.

Nudity in American television

Nudity in American television has always been a controversial topic. Aside from a few exceptions, nudity has traditionally not been shown on terrestrial television. On the other hand, cable television is much less restrictive as far as nudity is concerned.

After Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson's breast during a live performance at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show on February 1, 2004, a moral panic occurred, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tightened its indecency rules due to public pressure. As an instant result of the scandal, major networks edited some of their shows. CBS removed a shot of a naked man from Without a Trace, while NBC deleted a two-second shot of an elderly woman's breast from ER . Subsequently, prime time television networks became more reluctant to show even non-explicit nudity in their TV shows. In the current climate, nudity is almost unknown on any broadcast television show - with the exception being animated series such as The Simpsons and Family Guy (which spoofed the conservative phase of American television in the episode "PTV").

Cable television, on the other hand, is not bound by FCC rules and can show whatever material their executives consider suitable. While cable channels that rely on advertising still do not show nudity during primetime hours, nudity is often shown on premium cable channels such as Showtime and HBO. FX is one of the few commercially dependent cable channels that features nudity in its programming (notably the controversial Nip/Tuck). Discovery and other documentary-related channels may show nudity in a journalistic context, such as that of indigenous peoples.

Public Broadcasting Service, which features nudity in anthropological documentaries as well as some films, was the first network to display national programming that featured frontal female nudity on television.

Throughout the United States, many metropolitan areas had independent television stations that were not affiliated with any of the national networks and showed programming only to people within their limited broadcast range. During the 1980s, many of these stations experimented with showing frontal female nudity in movies during the prime time hour.

KTLA in Los Angeles, for example, showed an unedited version of Academy Award-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which features fully exposed female breasts, between 7:30 and 11 p.m. The channel began the time slot with a video of director Milos Forman stating that the film was too controversial to be allowed a faithful television broadcast (NBC's earlier broadcast had cut the film to fit the two hours format with commercials), but that KTLA believed that the culture had changed such that a complete broadcast would be tolerated and appreciated. Then, it was followed by a disclaimer that was repeated after each commercial break.

KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area regularly showed uncensored films that contained nudity, such as Magnum Force (Suzanne Somers), Big Bad Mama (Angie Dickinson and William Shatner), and Walkabout, which features full frontal nudity in a scene with teenage actress Jenny Agutter skinny dipping.

A number of stations in this era even went so far as to run promotions during which they would show a series of movies known for nudity in an attempt to get higher ratings for the week. In almost all cases, the nudity was restricted to showing exposed buttocks and female breasts.

By the end of the 1980s, most of these stations had started to receive complaints about such nudity and these broadcasts eventually stopped. In addition, some of these stations became Fox affiliates and were no longer able to make independent programming decisions during prime time.

History of nudity

Anthropologists believe that animal skins and vegetation were adapted into coverings as protection from cold, heat and rain, especially as humans migrated to new climates; alternatively, covering may have been invented first for other purposes, such as magic, decoration, cult, or prestige, and later found to be practical as well.

During the Victorian era, public nakedness was considered obscene. In addition to beaches being segregated by gender, bathing machines were also used to conceal the naked body. In the early 20th century, exposure of male nipples was considered indecent at some beaches. This is in contrast to in the Middle Ages, when the bathing suits worn by men, while covering the genitals, often nonetheless made them quite obvious.

Sport in the modern sense of the word became popular only in the 19th century. Nudity in this context was most common in Germany and the Nordic countries, where Body culture was very much revered (and some say, copied) by Nazi ideologues.

In the Nordic countries, with their sauna culture, nude swimming in rivers or lakes was a very popular tradition. In the summer, there would be wooden bathhouses, often of considerable size accommodating numerous swimmers, built partly over the water; hoardings prevented the bathers from being seen from outside. Originally the bathhouses were for men only; today there are usually separate sections for men and women. For the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912, the official poster was created by a distinguished artist. It depicted several naked male athletes (their genitals obscured) and was for that reason considered too daring for distribution in certain countries. Posters for the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, the 1924 Olympics in Paris, and the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki also featured nude male figures, evoking the classical origins of the games. The poster for the 1948 London Olympics featured a classical nude sculpture of a discus thrower.

An occasional—often illegal—naked sideshow is when a member of the public uses a sports venue to perform as a streaker. Streaking became more popular in the 1970s. It wasn't until the 1990s (and after) that nudity became expected at major public events, such as Bay to Breakers and World Naked Bike Ride.

Nudity in film

Nudity in film is any presentation in motion pictures of people without clothing, whether as full nudity — a view of someone's entire nude body — or more modest versions of nudity.

Nudity in film should be distinguished from sex in film. Nudity of a sexual nature is common in pornographic films. In softcore films there are limitations, such as avoiding the appearance of a penis, although it may be depicted. Erotic films are suggestive of sexuality, but need not contain nudity. A film on naturism or about people where nudity is common may contain non-sexual nudity, and some other non-pornographic films show some seconds or fractions of seconds of nude scenes, but the vast majority of nudity in film is in pornographic films.

Nude scenes can be controversial because they may challenge some people's standards of modesty. These standards vary by culture, and depend on who is exposed, which parts of the body are exposed, the duration of the exposure, the pose, the context, and other variables. Regardless, many cultures use censorship or a rating system to manage content of films, with the intention of limiting content that is deemed by the government and/or the movie industry to be harmful or undesirable, morally or otherwise. Nudity is usually one of the aspects of a film subject to censorship or rating.

For this reason, it has been said that many directors and producers apply self censorship, limiting nudity (and other content) in their films, to avoid external censorship or a strict rating, in countries that have a rating system. Thus adults are denied images just because these images are not considered suitable for teenagers. This applies even for scenes explicitly about a character showing or seeing nudity. Directors and producers may choose to limit nudity because of objections from actors involved, or for a wide variety of other personal, artistic, genre-bound or narrative-oriented reasons.

Nudity

(States Twitter)-Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations (such as a need for warmth or protection from the elements) and social considerations. In some situations the minimum amount of clothing (i.e. covering of a person's genitals) may be socially acceptable, while in others much more clothing is expected.
People, as individuals and in groups, have varying attitudes towards their own nudity. Some people are relaxed about appearing less than fully clothed in front of others, while others are uncomfortable or inhibited in that regard. People are nude in a variety of situations, and whether they are prepared to disrobe in front of others depends on the social context in which the issue arises. For example, people need to bathe without clothing, some people also sleep in the nude, some prefer to sunbathe in the nude or at least topless. Many people are prepared to disrobe for a medical examination, while others are nude in other situations. Some people adopt nudism as a lifestyle.
Though the wearing of clothes is the social norm in most cultures, some cultures, groups and individuals are more relaxed about nudity, though attitudes often depend on context. On the other hand, some people feel uncomfortable in the presence of any nudity, and the presence of a nude person in a public place can give rise to controversy, irrespective of the attitude of the person who is nude. Besides meeting social disapproval, in some places public nudity may constitute a crime of indecent exposure. Many people have strong views on nudity, which to them can involve issues and standards of modesty, decency and morality. Some people have a psychological aversion to nudity, called gymnophobia. Many people regard nudity to be inherently sexual and erotic.
Nudity is to be found in a multitude of media, including art, photography, film and on the Internet. It is a factor in adult entertainment of various types.

Bruni pregnant with twins

French magazine has claimed that France First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is expecting twins in the autumn.


Supermodel-turned-singer has been at the center of speculation she is expecting her first child with French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the last few weeks after she was spotted wearing baggier clothing in a suspected bid to hide a baby bump.


When quizzed by one of six readers of the Le Parisien newspaper invited to interview her, she replied, "If you'll allow me, I'd rather not answer these questions about my family.


When she is asked “So we will know in six months?” she says “Yes.” Her answer shows that in the near future, the Elysée Palace will comment on that matter as little as possible. An Elysée adviser hopes that in the end, the view of a President who leads the simplest and most reasonable life possible” will maybe come up.
President Sarkozy has recently also kept a lower public profile in an effort to regain popularity ahead of his reelection bid next year. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy does not exclude the possibility of taking part in the 2012 campaign, but offers a caveat. “I can join him on the campaign trail, listen to what people want to say, help those who ask me, accompany him to meetings”, she suggests in an interview with Le Parisien. But at the same time, she admits that she does not know “how an election campaign functions.


She hid her little stomach with her shawl every time that a photographer approached, she did not deny it when we asked the question without a microphone," an unnamed interviewer said.


"But she has a reason to be careful – at 43 it's always going to be a risky pregnancy, the interviewer added. 

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Mrs Sarkozy

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (born Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, 23 December 1967) is an Italo-French songwriter, singer, former model and current First lady of France. Since February 2008, she has been married to the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.


Relationships
It has been claimed that Bruni was involved with Louis Bertignac, Mick Jagger (Jagger's ex-wife Jerry Hall acknowledged his affair with Bruni as a reason for their separation), Eric Clapton, Léos Carax, Charles Berling, Arno Klarsfeld, Vincent Perez and former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.
She has said she is easily "bored with monogamy", and that "love lasts a long time, but burning desire – two to three weeks.
Bruni met recently divorced French president Nicolas Sarkozy in November 2007 at a dinner party.After a brief romance they married on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The marriage is Bruni's first and Sarkozy's third. Bruni obtained French nationality not long afterwards. She has since made contradictory statements as to whether she still holds Italian nationality as well.


Early life
Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi was born in Turin, Italy, and is heiress to the fortune created by the Italian tire manufacturing company CEAT, founded in the 1920s by her grandfather Virginio Bruni Tedeschi. The company was sold in the 1970s to Pirelli (the brand lives on via its former subsidiary in India, founded in 1958). The family moved to France in 1975, reportedly to escape the threat of kidnapping by the Red Brigades, a Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary group active in Italy in the 1970s. Bruni grew up in France from age seven and attended boarding school in Switzerland. She went to Paris to study art and architecture, but left school at 19 to become a model.