The History of Boudoir Photography: How It Evolved Over Time
Boudoir photography as we know it today didn't begin as a single photographic style. Its history is connected to portraiture, artistic studies of the human form, glamour photography, pinup imagery and changing ideas about how women could be represented in photographs.
Even the word boudoir existed long before photography. It comes from French and historically referred to a private dressing room, bedroom or sitting room. The word entered English in the late 1700s and carried a sense of privacy and intimacy—ideas that eventually became associated with the photography style that uses its name today.
Before There Was Boudoir Photography
Photography was introduced in the 19th century, and portraits quickly became one of its most popular uses. As photographic processes improved, having a portrait created became available to far more people than traditional painted portraiture had been.
Photographers were also exploring the human form almost from the beginning. In France during the 1850s, photographers created nude and partially clothed studies for artists as well as photographs intended as works of art themselves. Some images were considerably more intimate and provocative.
These photographs weren't necessarily called boudoir photography at the time, but they are part of the much longer history of intimate portraiture that eventually influenced the genre.
Glamour and Pinup Photography Changed the Way Women Were Photographed
During the early and middle decades of the 20th century, photography became increasingly important in Hollywood, magazines, advertising and popular culture.
Glamour portraits presented actresses and other women with carefully considered lighting, styling and posing. By the 1930s and 1940s, glamorous photographs of Hollywood stars helped shape popular ideas about beauty and femininity, while pinup imagery developed its own more playful and flirtatious visual language.
Those influences can still be seen in portrait photography today.
They're also part of the reason I enjoy offering different approaches within my own work. A modern boudoir session doesn't have to have one particular look. If you enjoy the playful influence of vintage imagery, you can explore my pinup photography, while my different styles of boudoir photography article shows how varied a modern session can be.
Boudoir Photography Continued to Change
Ideas about the body, sexuality and personal expression changed considerably throughout the 20th century, and photography changed along with them.
The representation of nudity in photography has served many purposes throughout its history—from artistic studies and glamour to explorations of beauty, identity and sexuality. The cultural changes of the 1960s and the decades that followed further changed how photographers used the human body to explore personal identity and freedom.
Modern boudoir grew out of this much larger photographic history, but today it has become its own recognizable form of portrait photography.
What Does Modern Boudoir Photography Look Like?
Today's boudoir photography can look very different from one woman to another.
It might include lingerie, but it doesn't have to. A session can be romantic or glamorous, dark and moody, playful, casual, bridal, vintage-inspired or a combination of several different looks.
The location doesn't have to resemble a traditional bedroom or boudoir either. What connects these photographs isn't one outfit, background or pose. It's the personal and intimate nature of the portrait.
If you're wondering what actually happens during a session today, my What Is Boudoir Photography? article explains the experience, including wardrobe, professional hair and makeup and guided posing.
From Photographs of Models to Portraits of Everyday Women
Perhaps one of the biggest differences between historical glamour imagery and modern boudoir photography is who gets to be photographed.
You don't have to be an actress, model or someone who already feels completely comfortable in front of a camera.
After photographing women for more than 15 years, I've worked with women of different ages, body types and reasons for wanting to be photographed. Most aren't professional models, and they don't arrive knowing how to pose. That's part of my job as the photographer.
Modern boudoir gives everyday women the opportunity to have thoughtfully created portraits of themselves using professional lighting, posing and styling.
Boudoir Photography Today
The history of intimate portraiture is fascinating, but I think what boudoir has become is just as interesting.
Women now book sessions for all kinds of reasons. Some are celebrating a wedding, anniversary or birthday. Some want to create a gift. Others simply want beautiful photographs of themselves at this particular point in their lives.
The style has changed tremendously since photography's earliest days, but one thing has remained remarkably consistent: photographs give us a way to preserve how a person existed at a particular moment in time.
If you'd like to see what that looks like today, you can explore boudoir sessions at Bella Chic Photography and see the different ways I photograph women at my Tacoma-area studio.