Couples grin and bare it
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Nude wedding photos are taking off among young couples in Beijing.
An Qiang, press officer at the Beijing Association of Marriage and Family Construction, said no studio will refuse such a request even though none of them officially provides this service openly.
A staff member surnamed Li from Paris-Spring, one of the most famous wedding photo studios in the city, said the studio could offer this service if required.
"We are experienced in shooting these pictures," she said. "Young couples today are open-minded, and who turns customers away?"
Bai Xiaoxue, a 25-year-old woman working in consulting, said her boyfriend has agreed to try it with her, but she won't tell anyone, especially her parents.
"I won't show the pictures to anybody other than the two of us," she said.
While many young people say they admire such wedding photos, they admit they will never have the guts to give it a try, not just because of a lack of confidence in their figures, but because of fears about the shooting process and the pictures being exposed to the public.
But Li said they have made every effort to put customers at ease.
"Since most worries come from female customers, we can change all the staff involved to females if required, from photographer and assistant, to people who retouch the photos, and the designer of the album," Li told METRO.
She said no genuine studios will publish or use customers' photos without their approval.
Nude wedding pictures are also proving popular in other cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Chongqing, Kunming and Hohhot.
However, He Lina, secretary-general of the Shanghai Wedding Trade Association, said such pictures are vulgar and against tradition and show no respect to marriage, Oriental Morning Post reported on Sunday. She said in the interview that if such cases are found in Shanghai, the association will act immediately and ask higher authorities to ban the relevant studios.
But the situation in Beijing is different according to An Qiang.
"Choosing the style of your photos is a basic individual right under the law, which has nothing to do with codes of practice of the industry or morality," he said.
The association has no right to interfere in a couple's choice as long as what they do with the pictures is legal.
"We don't necessarily approve, yet we don't oppose," said An.
However, experts warn that there are potential risks, which may not only come from the studios.
"Shooting nude wedding pictures involves both portrait rights and privacy rights," said Yang Minfeng, a lawyer from W&H Law Firm in Beijing.
"It's sad, but not all marriages end in happiness, which means there is a risk of the photos being published by your spouse after a divorce," said Yang.
Yang also suggested couples sign a contract with the studio before shooting, which clearly states how the pictures should be taken and any compensation fee in case of disclosure of the photos.
