Nudes: Art or Porn?

There tend to be two very different opinions regarding artistic nude phototgraphy. Some maintain there is such a thing and defend the concept staunchly.

Meanwhile others rubbish the idea, dismissing such work as mere pornography. I can understand both viewpoints, but I take the view that pornography can be artistic - and I've even written an essay on the subject.

In a philosophy exam at university, several years ago, I chose the following question to write about: "Discuss the claims of two of the following, to be considered art" (or something like that) and one of the options was pornography.

Naturally, I chose to discuss the merits of pornography in being considered art. I think I did pretty well too, because I passed that question with distinction.

I won't repeat my case here, as it's far too lengthy, but the essence of my argument was that a piece of art is a man-made creation of great beauty. Everything we see in nature is beautiful. The only blights on our landscape are the cheap, ugly buildings and other man-made artefacts, that can be seen all over the world. Buildings can be beautiful, of course, but usually are not.

So when a human being creates something of beauty, we normally call it art. A photograph of a beautiful woman, therefore, must be art as it is man-made (with the help of a man-made camera) and it is also beautiful because the woman is beautiful.

It may not be the strongest argument ever heard, but if one applies the logic to all softcore pornography, it's clear that artistic nude photgraphy must exist.

Now I wouldn't seriously claim that all porn is art. My answer to the essay question is not totally relevant, as the way to pass a philosophy exam is to prove you can argue the case for anything.

But I do feel that some pornography is artistic, otherwise I would never have started hi-nude.com. The nude sites I recommend here are those which feature artistic nude photography and not trashy porn sites.

As hi-nude is a new project, let me recommend a site that will introduce you to the most artistic nude sites currently online. Artistic Nudes features site reviews as well as articles if you delve deeper. Just a look at the homepage will tell you if there is such a thing as artistic nudes. Check it out sometime.

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Artistic Nudes - Featuring artistic nude site reviews, links, & articles