Nude photography did not begin with Playboy. Until the advent of photographic reproduction in the mid-nineteenth century, portrayal of the naked body - preferably female - was the painter's prerogative. Whereas painting usually veiled sensuality with religious or mythological connotations, nude photography revealed it directly and without inhibition. Although classic fine art poses are often copied, the photographic model's inviting expression or lascivious gesture addresses the observer much more immediately. A woman you can almost touch, yet who is captured only on paper... The erotically suggestive aura of these pictures has not lost its subtle effect even today.