Naakte jongen en meisje c. 1900

Wilhelm von Gloeden created this photograph of two young people in Italy sometime between the 1880s and 1930s. His practice of photographing nude Sicilian youths was controversial at the time, yet also appealed to a certain market. Von Gloeden’s staged photographs presented the local boys as figures in an Arcadian fantasy. The tambourine, the classical drapery and the carefully arranged poses are all visual codes that signal this artful construction. Von Gloeden's work operated within a well-established tradition of the male nude in painting and sculpture. Yet photography was perceived differently, as more like a direct record of reality. The artist challenged the strict social norms around sexuality and representation of the body in his time, however. The popularity of his work tells us a great deal about attitudes in Europe and North America at the turn of the century. Social and cultural historians can consult sources like court records, letters, and publications to reconstruct these attitudes and interpret Von Gloeden’s work in its proper context.