The last of our Bare Beach Babies three-parter. We can’t really have a proper discussion of this without including Jock Sturges, and so we’ll begin with him. Now, there are simply too many images by Sturges that fit this description to include them all here, so I’ll provide a few examples. Sturges’s modus operandi is to focus his camera on nudist and naturist girls starting when they are very young and following the blossoming of their bodies from prepubescence, through adolescence, and finally to the young women they become. His photographs, taken with a large-format camera, have been controversial from the get-go, capturing the changing female body in plain but elegant terms. That anyone would equate Sturges’s work with pornography seems to speak more about the minds of his critics than it does about his photographs. Like the girls themselves, these images are holistic and stripped bare–stripped of pretentions, semiotic cues, and the language of modern sexuality. Unless one equates nudity with sexuality across the board (an odd notion to be sure, because it would mean that any image of a naked child is de facto pornography) if there is any eroticism to be found in these pictures, the fault lies clearly with the viewer rather than the pictures themselves. Perhaps in the end the real “problem” then is that these pictures force us to confront an uncomfortably reality about ourselves.

Jock Sturges – (I’m not sure about the title, but I do know the girl in the foreground is Misty Dawn.)
And a clear admirer and follower of Sturges:
A modern Impressionist:
Amadelio: Jock Sturges interview (archived)
When I revisit a post here after not seeing it for a long time, very frequently new ideas occur to me.
I am sure that I am NOT the only fan of this site who appreciates the beauty of girls and boys alike. Therefore I feel that some of the most beautiful images on the site are those relatively few images of a boy and a girl together.
On this page, those are the Tierney Gearon picture and the Tsur Pelly picture.
Another example is the Jean Francois Bauret picture on the post concerning the
Bauret photo / Koons sculpture matter.
Are there other people here who feel the way I do about girl-and-boy pictures?
P.S. I had intended to also mention some of the pictures on
the “Playing Doctor: Herbert Rogge et al” post.
re Zorgy’s picture. The tan lines on the older girl are so distinct they seem almost etched. Now that she is leaving the beach she can take the swimsuit off. When I see this picture, I can’t help but think about that Tom and Jerry cartoon where they wear swimsuits on the beach, but are naked the rest of the time. I love this one so much I made a jigsaw puzzle of it on my computer.
About the Tsur Pelly picture of the Bedouin children:
Notice how customs of appearance vary so much among different cultures.
The girl’s hair seems to be shorter than the boy’s hair.