Albert Arthur Allen American Nudes 'teens/'20s

Albert Arthur Allen created a very large body of work devoted to the female figure. He worked in the San Francisco bay area, publishing his Allo Nudes catalogs offering for sale his original photographs appearing first in circa 1917. The images, reminiscent of the later days of the photo-secession, featured lovely, youthful female models posed idyllically outdoors. Posted here are images from deep in my archives.

In the 1920s Allen shifted his focus to studio nudes creating his exceptional, modern style series of portfolios including Premiere Nudes, The Sheik, Exotic Nudes, Sex Appeal and A Night In A Harem. Although some his most memorable images are from his later period, especially the Premiere Nudes montaged images of women posed together, his early work retains a beautiful, simple eroticism that was not seen during an era of chaste and demure photographic nudes. Here are more images by Allen. 

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Chinese Nudes: EDLE NACKTHEIT IN CHINA 1928

Another of the great photography books on the body, the female nude, is Heinz von Perckhammer's Edle Nacktheit in China ~ Kunstlerische Aktaufnahmen with 32 fine gravures, published in Berlin,1928. Perckhammer, who travelled to Asia, Southern China and Macao in the late 1920s, posed and photographed prostitutes in brothels in a pictorialist, soft-focus style. One of the most beautiful books of the period. My most recent copy of the book was the most uncommon, a hard cover edition with yellow tie-binding and yellow and blue covers + the dust jacket.

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FRANZ FIEDLER Female Nudes Portfolio circa 1925

Published in Berlin, circa 1925, Kunsstlerische Aktaufnahmen a portfolio of 24 photographic female nudes printed in gravure is one of the important, must haves for any library of books devoted to the nude and the body. The photographs range in style from the classically inspired, to soft focus pictorialism, to a modern style evocative of what was emerging in Germany at the time as the "die neue sachlichkeit" (the new objectivity). The photographic reproductions, mounted to unbound plates, are housed in a simple, beige colored, burlap-like cloth covered portfolio. More about Fiedler here.

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