Today, the Internet and mobile phone cameras give easy access to the consumption, production and sharing of porn.
Back when photography was first invented, making money on pictures of sex was prohibited, but such images were nevertheless sold illegally. Later, Denmark became the first country in the world to lift its ban on visual pornography, and for a while Danish companies were world leaders in the field.
Commercial porn is still infused by stereotypical notions of gender and sexuality, but in art the norms of pornography are often challenged.
Banned pictures
Back when photography was invented, pornography was already prohibited by law. That ban was contravened immediately as the medium was used to create erotic images right from the outset. The photographs were sold clandestinely under the counter and kept secret by their owners. It was even possible to obtain a pocket-sized stereoscope, enabling you to look at erotic images in 3D. In the 1920s, the nude form was celebrated in depictions of the naturist life, and such images were also sold as pornography.
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Stereoscope, stereograms and storage box, gelatin silver print, c. 1890s.
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
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Stereograms, gelatin silver print, c. 1890s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Stereograms, gelatin silver print, c. 1890s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Stereograms, gelatin silver print, c. 1890s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Nude model on a bicycle, albumen print, c. 1900.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Nude model on a bicycle, albumen print, c. 1900.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Nude model on a bicycle, albumen print, c. 1900.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Mary Willumsen
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Mary Willumsen
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Mary Willumsen
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Unknown photographers: A selection of ‘French postcards’, gelatin silver print and other techniques, 1890–1940s.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Model studies
The ban on pornography was circumvented in many ingenious ways. One common ploy was to sell nude pictures of men and women in various poses on the pretext of these images being intended as inspiration to painters and illustrators. This was done in literature and magazines, but also on slides that allowed for a particularly vivid experience by showing the model in a large format. In the 1960s, magazines like Forms in Color marketed erotic images as educational, teaching students how to take colour photographs.
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Forms in Color, 1964.
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
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Models for Artists, slides, ca. 1960.
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
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Pornography seized by the police
In the years leading up to the lift of the ban on porn in Denmark in 1969, the police were made increasingly busy by the steadily growing production of lewd material. But when was a picture a nude, and when was it porn? Images of outright sex were easily identified as porn, but other images might also belong to the category described as ‘speculation in sensuality’. The police tried to establish a system to assist such judgement calls by amassing and categorising a substantial collection of visual pornographic material, which was later handed over to Det Kgl. Bibliotek.
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Negatives for TABU 68 & negatives for LOVE 3 68.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Negatives for LOVE 67.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Copenhagen Police Studio: Catalogue of various types of erotic material, album with mounted photos, undated.
Photo: Ukendt ophav
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Petra Kleis
Photographer Petra Kleis has taken pictures of the Danish artist and activist Maja Malou Lyse over the course of many months. The Girlification series is a kind of collective performance in which the two women play with the traditional clichés of pornography – the (male?) gaze of the camera and the sexy, lustful woman with hyperfeminine attributes.
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From the series Girlification, 2020. Archival pigment print.
Photo: Petra Kleis
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From the series Girlification, 2020. Archival pigment print.
Photo: Petra Kleis
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From the series Girlification, 2020. Archival pigment print.
Photo: Petra Kleis
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