111 It is more than clear that the beginnings of nude photography are almost as old as the history of photography itself, although the authors who photographed courtesans, fearing punishment, did not yet sign their works. This brief introduction cannot be devoted to the history of nude photography, but let me mention a few names from the international and national scene. The most important foreign nude photographers of the 20th century, in chronological order: Alfred Steiglitz, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray, Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe. (Yes, there are two Hungarian-born photographers among them.) Our Hungarian masters: Dénes Rónai, Olga Máté, József Pécsi, Márton Munkácsy, Rudolf Járai, Tamás Féner, Demeter Balla, Tamás Török, György Tóth. (It should be noted that the above photographers have of course worked with other themes too.) Gábor Városi, the artist who works with multiple media at the same time, made his mark in the field of nude photography with his photo series. I browse, I look at his pictures. What they all have in common is that he “doesn’t colour things”, he is content with puritan black and white representation. In all of his photographs, male and female back nudes are captured in movement by exposing several times on a single frame. This is how he makes us see the subjects’ upper bodies in constant motion, dynamically bending and twisting. (This kind of pulsation, this spasmodic representation of movement was also a signature of the Italian Futurists.) The sinewy and muscular backs have nothing to do with the pumped-up physiques of body-builders, but are more reminiscent of classic icons of ancient beauty ideals. These photographs have nothing to do with pornography, nor are they erotic; they are simply healthy, athletically beautiful. Capturing the naked human body has always been a favourite subject for photographers. They celebrate life, the man created for the world.
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