I am an amateur photographer - mainly landscapes and women in TFP model and am studying Film industry / Cinema. When I taught myself to photograph, I started following photographers online and a large number of them shoots artistic nudes.
Most of the photos are bad tasted and a small number are excellent. I once photographed implicitly nude out of curiosity and I know it's really challenges getting a good photo.
A nude photo can be excellent, but I don't understand the commercial benefit. A small number of nude photographers publish links to paid websites, the majority just upload to various platforms.
My question is whether today, when so much of everything is available through search engines - is there any economic benefit to nude photography?
(I am not referring to businesses that have asked the photographer for photos or selling photos for printing online.)
So- am I missing something here?

This is the wrong forum for this topic.

Depends on the photographer. Some photogs shoot for various publications on a regular basis, like Playboy, and many other men's magazines. They have proven themselves reliable to get the images the magazines need for their publications. Others seek to get to the point where they can get into that market. Some do fine art nudes, to make a name for themselves in the photography as fine art, world. Some simply do them for creative expression, and they might sell some here and there.

Is there a market...........yes. is it easy to get into, not really. You would have to be in markets that have model agencies that supply nude models, on a regular basis. Are there OTHER motives for shooting nudes? Yes. Are all of those good..........no.

In my case, I shoot them as part of a series of imagery, when I have a model who is flexible enough to feel comfortable with doing them. That's for me, a part of the overall creative process. I do not go out of my way to sell them anywhere, because I don't do them to sell.............they are just part of creating a series of images of the model, and when I can find a model where I am now, which has proven difficult to do, I will see if the model is open to doing that. It won't affect my working with them if they decline to do anything exposed, however, as I can design a creative shoot without that, in another category of modeling.

I think I got into doing series photography from doing Lingerie shoots originally, although my first nude was a request from a former portrait model I used, early in my career. I have done a lot of lingerie model images, so it is kind of a natural thing to progress into additional variations, for creative purposes. The more you explore, the better you get at doing people in all kinds of situations. One of my first Lingerie shoots was for a bridal shop to show Lingerie for brides, in their dressing rooms. Then I went on to shoot the models for that, in other shoots, experimenting all the time.

Photography is a continually growing profession, and the more you do of people, the more you learn about doing people, in a variety of situations, and for a variety of purposes. Nudes are not something everyone wants or needs to do.............models or photographers. but the model is part of the creative team, so the more comfortable they are, the more creative the team can be, in creating good images.

One of the reasons photographers look for models who are flexible, is you can use a greater range of models to do all other genres, besides fashion, which is pretty much a "must fit the mold" category. So looking for models that are flexible in what categories they will work in, becomes part of the process of using models who are not necessarily tall, but have other assets. Both male and female photographers do nudes, and some female photographers do them for men's magazines, as well as male photogs.

I did use a model once, who moved to NYC and became a men's magazine model. She was Swedish, and didn't have any hang ups about nudity at all. She even did layouts in cityscapes, fully nude.  So it is up to the individual, whether photographer or model, as to whether they have any interest in doing nudes, and whether they have any concerns about sellng such images to publications.

Almost all photographers will do sexy images of models, whether the models do nudes or not, and they may sell those in the stock photography market, because they choose to shoot what they want to shoot, and then sell it later. It affords them a big sense of freedom, to go where they choose, and shoot what they choose. That is a market that might use an image for almost any kind of purpose, if the image works for a particular purpose. Such sales will typically not be that lucrative financially, for any one photographer, unless the stock agencies take a particular liking to a specific photographer and encourages them to submit images of a type they need more of. There are a lot of photographers who do work on assignments from publications, but those rarely would involve anything revealing of a subject, unless the subject was doing it for the publication.

So, yes, there is money to be made in shooting nudes, if you are in the right place for it, or you have established yourself as a highly skilled glamour photographer, that publications will seek out.

Yes, hiring models to do nudes can be very expensive. There are ways to minimize excessive expense, though if  you approach it in a certain way. If you are in a market where there are agencies for that, you will find the rates are far more reasonable though, than models on this site.

It is all about what resources do you have, at your disposal. Where I am now, the resources are minimal. In Dallas, where I was before retiring, I had a very good agency with models for that, that was quite reasonable. I have images on my page here, of one of those models. I also have images of lingerie models that were very affordable as well. While more of my work was done in fashion, or product, than nudes, I seldom worked in a studio, unless I needed to rent one to shoot for a client, with minimal hassles, like a bridal line. I prefer to work in real environments. Studio looks, are actually pretty boring to me. I like room settings, outdoor settings, or architectural, or city scape environments. for most of my work. I also used hotel common areas and suites for a lot of my commercial fashion formal gowns, or private clubs. The private women's club worked great for lingerie shoots, when they didn't have anything else going on, and I also shot women's suits and sweaters in that location, in a different area.

You just do, based on what is available to you, in resources.

Does everything need to have a commercial justification?

No. The question was asked just to see if there was any commercial application, by an amateur photographer, for that category of work.

I have been paid by models, as well as regular people, to shoot nudes. They are used as boudoir photos for "civilians," or for portfolios for models who wish to network for nude content work. It's a market, in and of itself.

No, there is no economic benefit to nude photography for photographers.

It is the one genre where the person you're working with likely won't hire you (I'd assume someone paying for nude photographs of themselves was in the midst of a crisis lol), and you're likely never going to have a client who is paying for the photos.

But, there are other benefits to it that are not economic. People often pay for the things they enjoy doing regardless of economic benefits, because economic benefits aren't the only thing that matter.
I pay for plenty of things that offer me no economic benefit - in fact, they're often, likely an economic detriment. For example: sewing, embroidery, fancy cooking implements, a ridiculous amount of instant film, and going to the spa.

I think what you're missing here is that the practice of any specific activity is not necessarily economically motivated. Hope that helps.