Nude photography really came into its own in the late fifties and early sixties. Groups of men joined 'camera clubs' so that they could trek down to the beach with a buxom beauty and snap away as she frolicked in the waves, and magazines featuring 'naturalists' - meaning beautiful nude young women, happily nude - were all the rage. The photography wasn't highly sophisticated - in fact by today's standards it was too bright and too high contrast, the smiles too high-wattage and the colors too vibrant. But that's what we love about those early nude photos - the sheer exuberance of them, the unmistakable joie de vivre present in every frame. It was a more innocent, more value-driven time, and those of us lucky enough to grow up with those images as our first taste of nude women are better men for it.
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