Ghosts of Time

The Visual Culture of Naturists in mid-20th century Britain

Researching and collecting old photographs takes you to some strange and unexpected places. In this case I was interested in the photographs by Bertram Parks and Yvonne Cooper in annual volumes of “Photograms of the Year”. I knew that they were well-known photographers who managed to span taking society photographs and nudes (though not at the same time!) without causing any apparent controversies. It was also easy to discover that not only were they published in “respectable” books and magazines but they also contributed to many nudist magazines such as Health and Efficiency. When I read that they were supporters of British Nudism it seemed inevitable that I would get a copy of AnneBella Pollen’s book on the subject.

It is indeed the case that Bertram Parks and Yvonne Cooper not only took photographs of Naturists but they actively promoted the practice through their work. But it was also the case that they most often used professional models rather than real naturists and it was these photographs that were most often used in nudist publications. This is at the heart of many of the questions that can be raised about the nudist movement in mid-20^th century Britain. The naturists themselves were trying to promote a healthy lifestyle suitable for families and claiming that going without clothes was a way of entirely obviating sexual connotations and indeed that participants would not fall prey to pornographic thoughts as regular exposure to naked bodies would make nudity entirely natural. Of course there is a massive contradiction here as “Health and Efficiency”, “The Naturist” etc., purported to support these core ideas and yet their pages were full of naked female models. The number of naturists was much, much lower than the circulation of these magazines so how were the magazines really being seen? The magazines were also full of adverts for not only healthy lifestyle products but also doubtful self-improvement courses and books. Want a bigger bust (and this was long before Polanski) or want to grow muscles to stop bullies kicking sand in your face? Then there was something there for you. As the magazines grew they also began to advertise services, books and films clearly meant to titillate.

Annebella Pollen lays out these developments with admiral clarity and with copious photographs which strike one as charming and old-fashioned rather than pornographic. She traces the evolution of nudism as a philosophy through gymnosophy through nudism and naturism between the 1920s and the early 1970s. The terms used seem to mean the same thing but there are subtle differences and changing definitions to be explored along the way. You can see Pollen’s academic background in her writing yet she always manages to keep her narrative interesting and readable with only the odd reference to “othering” and gender identities.

Nudism in a Cold Climate is one of those books that has quotable entries on every page and I could easily fill this review with them. Take her opening paragraph for instance: “There’s an old joke about pornographic magazines; I only read them for the articles! It regularly popped into my mind while researching 50 years of nudist publications packed full of photographs of naked people. In my case the defence was true: nudist articles have complex and interesting things to say about the movement’s principles and its public identity. Nudist authors were earnest in the face of ridicule. They are worth taking seriously for what they reveal about bodily ideals and realities in a period of rapid social and cultural change in 20^th century Britain.”

Despite what you might expect this book has a lengthy and interesting text as well as the interspersed images. Even if you come to be titillated you will learn much about social attitudes and social history. It’s worth saying too that the book has excellent notes, a comprehensive index and properly referenced image credits, all things that matter not only to scholars but to people like me wanting to clarify the history of photography and identify new sources of information. Of course there’s a lot that could be said about modern day pornography, the internet and so on but they are not the focus of this book which generally ends discussion in the early 1970s. From my perspective it is not only a riveting read but it also sheds light on vintage photography in general and shows how trying to separate “art” photography