Yes, everybody; we are still here. This is a crucial stage in the site and organization where we must strategize how to survive in this environment.
“Protected” Images: I feel it was a sensible decision but it does pain me a bit that it has become necessary to protect certain image from prying eyes and those they report to not competent to make informed and rational decisions about the content we cover. No use crying over spilt milk. As an emergency measure, we had to change the status of most posts to private which mean non-registered readers will not see those posts. Now that we found a way to protect individual images, I am working back in time and making each post public again as I evaluate each image. It is important that the posts themselves are public so that those researching specific artists or themes can find the contributions of this site. As of this writing, I have released posts going back through 2017. All posts should be readily available in the next few days.
Registered Readers: I am pleased to announce that there is robust interest in full access to this site. Requests have been trickling in and over 100 users have now been registered. The good news is that a handful of materials that artists wanted to keep under wraps due to unwanted public scrutiny can now be made available to a limited number of viewers.
Pigtails Volunteer Recruitment Drive: The biggest problem with keeping this site going is the efforts of our supporters. In the early days, I had time to nurture the contributions of others but I have had much less time of late. In the coming month, I will be putting together a list of supporting positions that would help in the smooth operation of this site.
Agapeta‘s Domain Issues: I am pleased to report that the domain transfer codes to Agapeta have finally been released. In the mean time, a new domain agapeta.fr had to be used and still functions but now the original agapeta.art is now functioning again. I’m afraid Agapeta and the Graham Ovenden sites were the unwitting victims of attacks targeting this site.
Lukas Roels: I am delighted to report that images from Roels’ Angels Of Time are now publicly available. I confirmed with the artist that the images displayed by Galerie Ludwig Trossaert London were duly authorized by him.
Jogging the Collective Memory: Many times readers have shared memories of images they recall seeing in the past in the hopes of making an identification. Usually the descriptions are a bit too vague to offer much of a lead. However, a recent message gives details that are peculiar enough to be distinctive and perhaps one of our readers will recognize it. Anyone wishing to help, please send us a message.
Many decades ago I saw late 19th early 20th century (maybe 1900s) nude photographs depicting girls seated on short legged baroque chairs, one was looking with binoculars at a circular mirror on the ground oriented towards her, another photograph was a girl also on the same chair looking at white dog on the floor and another was a girl standing with the same chair behind her while looking at the circular mirror on the ground. All girls were wearing knee socks. So where can I find those plus all other similar work from the same photographer? [Text was edited for clarity. -Ron]
Thank you very much Lukas Roels and Galerie Ludwig Trossaert London for making the images available to us!
Yes. In fact, my favorite image—of which I have a print—was not allowed to be published at the time. the girl’s parents were divorced and although the mother gave permission, the father was furious and threatened Roels. The artist was able to defend himself but was instructed that he could not openly publish the image. Only those who purchased the book or ordered a personal print could see it. Now that the girl in question is of age, this is no longer an issue. -Ron
I’ve narrowed down the requested images based on the furniture, background, clothing and overall style from 1870s to 1890s. It appears they are from a single unknown photographer who also photographed woman. However its almost impossible to find the young female photographs online due to its controversial nature. I think they are only available at Kinsey institute for hard copy only view from certain books. My guess is there is a treasure trove of lost nude images somewhere at the Kinsey archives. What is the name of the books and collections?. I was only able to find one book with the cover image from the same photographer. I don’t know if the requested images are inside or they are removed or censored. It will be a gold mine for those who can find those collections. So good luck searching and keep us updated.
This is the book with a cover that has the same background, furniture and props(white soft toy dog) as the requested images of the young females.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Illustrated-Book-Filthy-Victorian-Photographs/dp/1898998361
Thank you so much for this lead. Although these “filthy” images were for academic purposes, they were not necessarily produced for that purpose. Photos for scholarly purposes, I imagine, should be more clinical and wouldn’t have props like toy dogs, a mirror and knee-socks. It is my hope that Pigtails should develop and reputation of legitimacy in academic circles so that we may have access to historically important on-topic images that could be made more public and avoid odd requests for lay people to see their images. I’m sure many images from the Kinsey collection would not be suitable for Pigtails—after all, this is sex research—but might be if they originally came from conventional sources or private donations. -Ron