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A naked photograph can be intimate, artistic, commercial, sexual—or all four at the same time.

That is what makes photographic pornography different from pornography as a broader category. The still photograph freezes one particular body, one expression, one pose and one moment. It turns that moment into an object that can be kept, purchased, copied, displayed, exchanged or remembered.

And today, almost anyone can make one.

The smartphone has transformed the economics of the naked photograph. A studio is no longer necessary. Neither is a publisher, printer or distributor. A person can create a photograph, sell access to it and communicate directly with the person viewing it.

The photograph has become both the product and the storefront.

But reliable demographic research on photographic pornography itself is surprisingly limited. Much research measures pornography as a whole, combining still photographs with video, text and other forms. Those statistics cannot simply be transferred to photographic pornography without producing a misleading picture of who looks at it.

This absence of precise data tells us something important.

The naked photograph is culturally ubiquitous, yet researchers still have difficulty separating it from the much larger world of pornography.

When The Photograph Becomes A Business

Digital photography removed many of the costs that once surrounded photographic pornography.

There is no photographic paper for a digital image. No negative has to be developed. No physical package has to cross a border. A photograph can be duplicated without visibly deteriorating and delivered to another person almost instantly.

That changed the business. “645 words to go. A donation keeps you reading and supports our independence. Thank you!”

By Edge of Humanity Magazine