As long as there has been art there has been nude art. Likewise, soon after photography was invented there was nude photography. Nude photography is a style which presents the human body as a work of art rather than as a personality. Models are usually completely nude; faces might not be shown. Settings are usually simple, sometimes limited to a featureless background. Emphasis is placed on poses, shapes and curves; the interplay of light and shadow is often an important feature. The images are meant to be artistic and not sexually suggestive. The terms "figure studies", "art nudes", and "fine-art nudes" can be considered as describing subsets of nude photography but are often used interchangeably.

This is fashion photography with little or no fashion. This is all about personality, fantasy, and sex appeal. Think Playboy. When indoors, creative lighting is meant to emphasize the model's figure and to suggest moods and environments. Models may be in various states of undress, express feeling and emotion and often appear to engage the viewer directly. Settings range from the simplest, as in nude photography, to the most exotic locales. Images may be but are not always sexually suggestive and are rarely sexually explicit.