Boys have inspired many photographers and since the late 19th century, the nude boy has

been the
favorite subject of many photographers, professional or not. Today, due to recent concerns about
child pornography, few photographers continue this tradition.
At the end of 19th century the most prominent photographer of the male nude was Wilhelm von
Gloeden (18561931), a boylover himself, whom specialized in pastoral nude studies of Italian
boys. Other notable photographers of nude boys up until the 1930s were von Gloeden's cousin
Guglielmo Plschow (18521930), Gaetano D'Agata (18831949), American painter Thomas
Eakins (18441916) who used his photographs as models for some of his paintings, American
photographer F. Holland Day (18641933), and author Baron Corvo (pseud. of Frederick William
Rolfe) (18601913) who took many photographs of his young Italian boyfriends. Also notable was
the contribution of Rudolf Lehnert (18781948) who photographed adolescent boys and girls in
Tunisia. These pictures were circulated among boylovers such as the "Uranian" poets in England,
but also used as illustrations in the German homosexual magazine Der Eigene (18991929) and in
the early publications of The Fortune Press and The Cayme Press.
By the 1930s several photographers working on homoerotic themes, like Herbert List (19031975),
showed an interest to boys as subjects, whereas others like Karel Egermeier and Jacques Simonot
(1925-1982) focussed exclusively on boys publishing their work in youth and scouting magazines.
The post-war naturist culture gave many opportunities to capture naked boys at play, with Hajo
Ortil (19051983) being the most prominent naturist photographer of boys. The photographic
output on boys of the first half of the 20th century was later presented in popular books such as The
Boy: A Photographic Essay (1964) and Boys will be Boys (1966).
During the 1960s, documentary photographer Will McBride (1931 ) begun an interesting body of
work with a special focus on boys including several nude studies that served as models for his work
as a sculptor. Around the same time photographer, and later director, Larry Clark (1943 ) begun his
projects of photographing teenagers in the United States suburbia.
The sexual and gay liberation of the late 1960s-early 1970s had their impact on the proliferation of
nude boy photography. During the mid 1970s, at least a dozen magazines featuring naked
photographs of boys, mostly "physique" poses, taken by amateurs (but also professionals like
Harlan 'Slim' Pfeiffer) circulated freely in Europe and North America. A few years later, however,
magazines like Boy (published by COQ International), Naked Boyhood Magazine (published by
Lyric International), Piccollo, David, Beach Boy, Jean's, Tommy, Chicken, Boy Studies, and others,
became illegal.
During the 1980s publishing pictures of naked boys took different ways. Laws in Europe were
tolerant of work that had artistic merit and a considerable number of photographers like Grard
Marot, Negrepont, Bernard Alapetite, Christophe Baltus, Jos Maier, D.H. Mader (1948 ) and
others, had their works published by specialized publishers like J.M.V. Diffusion or self-published.
This trend continued somewhat well into the 1990s with photographer Mike Tedder (1958 ),
publishers Janssen-Verlag and Edition Pojkart and the glossy magazines Martin (in Czech
Republic), OK Magazine (in the Netherlands), Gayme (in the United States), as well as the bilingual
English/German Koinos.
File:Ck.jpg
In a world where this is shut down as "kiddy porn"...
With the turn of the 21st century concerns over child pornography became ever stronger with artists
like Jock Sturges (1947 ), Sally Mann (1951 ) and naturist magazines like Jeunes et Naturels
having troubles with the Law. As a result, publishers became unable to publish photographs of
naked boys and photographers became reluctant to use boys as their subjects. Perhaps the next step
will be to attack the work of Anthony Goicolea (1971 ) and Bernard Faucon (1950 ), who often
produced staged photography with the use of mannequis and manipulated self-portraits, in line with
the latest "virtual child pornography" laws.

Modern use and legality issues

Due to the passing of new laws and an international law-enforcement crackdown on nude and erotic
boy photography (as child pornography), boylovers who collect such images are now running a
high risk in most jurisdictions. Most photographic "CP" can be said to come from four basic
sources:
Professional-commercial photography. Commercial, erotic boy photography is no longer
produced (in its sexually explicit form), and most commentators outside of the child abuse
hegemony will concede that its modern equivalent is a figment of the popular imagination.
Enterprises such as Swissarts have gone on to make borderline non-nude photosets
involving posing prepubescent boys.
Opportunistic, or boyeur type photography imported from explicitly non-pornographic
sources. These can be candid family nudes or naturist images rendered "obscene" or
"abusive" by modern, anti-pedophile statutes. Some naked photography was and is sold as
art, on the commercial market as well - the legality of such being subject to jurisdiction and
dispute.
Amateur pornography Images are sometimes produced by families, enterprising individuals,
and notably by western tourists and clients of under-age rent boys in less developed nations,
notably in Asia.
Children's pornography, a la self-made sexting type images, which sometimes appear in the
collections of adult BLs. However, this culturally subversive and growing trend rarely serves
persons above the age of majority, as minors are stringently segregated in cultures which
embrace modern technology. In some cases, adults and children have subverted this by
ripping self-made boy-porn content from webcam sites such as Stickam, and uploading it to
anonymous servers