I have a giant pet peeve when it comes to what Americans "think" is art photography of the female form. Most people think of the photographs in Playboy Magazine as being art photography. I don't. Fundamentalist would on the whole classify art photography of the female form (especially the nude) as pornography. It's definitely not that. So what is it?
First of all when you think of people photographing the female form, especially the nude female form, there is a whole hierarchy of classification. I would put pornography at the very bottom and I definitely would not define it in any way as artful but rather degrading. At the very top of that hierarchy would be art photography of the nude female form.
When you gaze at an artistic photograph of the female form right away you can tell that the model is being posed and lit with the utmost respect. Always try to decern the intent of the photographer. Is he/she being gratuitous in any way or is the photographer trying to make a statement about the beauty of the human body.
Look again, do you get the sense that the photographer is honoring the subject matter by rendering an image that speaks first and foremost to the viewers highest sensibilites. Do you get the feeling that the nude is being photographed as though it were akin to a lovely landscape?
A good example of art photography of the female form are the images of Alfred Cheney Johnston who was the premier Ziegfeld Follies photographer during the Jazz Age. Most of his photography was of the stars of the Follies. But it was discovered after his death that he'd done a number of photographs using nude models. If you look at the photographs of his clothed models right next to those images of the nude models you will fine no difference in his intent to take artful photographs.
In all his images he shows nothing but a fine artist's artistic approach to shooting photographs of the female form. You can see that his intent is always to glorify women and their place in the world.
So the next time you look at a photograph of a woman, I hope you will have a better understanding of what constitutes art photography of the female form. Art photography will ALWAYS be based in integrity and the classic rules of the fine arts.