Forever and Ever, or Just Once in a Lifetime?--Matrimonial Photo Boutiques

Why take a wedding photo? Answers to this question must certainly include: "It'll be something to help you remember!" "Everyone has their pictures taken. Why shouldn't we?" and "It would be weird not to have your picture taken!"

Taking wedding photos when you get married, just like treating everyone you know to a big wedding banquet, has become another part of Taiwan's wedding customs.

Photographer Tsai Yung-ho of Ho Chih Photographic Workshop believes that a portrait is a kind of record. He likes to refer to wedding photos as "a record of one passage of your life."

Wedding photos, especially for women, are a big thing in life. For this reason, most photo studio professionals apply special craftsmanship, custom made, to the female form, including the hair-do and the appearance and number of the gowns.

Wherever you find Chinese people...

"Any place you find Chinese people, there will be wedding photos," says Photo Max president Mai Tsan-wen, and in fact the statement is not an exaggeration.

It is not uncommon for overseas Chinese from many different countries to make a special trip to Taiwan to have their wedding portraits taken.

Magazine reporter Ventine Tsai tells of being on a reporting excursion in South Korea. In the home of an overseas Chinese whom she was interviewing, she encountered an enormous wedding photo hanging in one room, which left a deep impression upon her. When overseas Chinese are willing to fork over the money to fly to Taiwan and pay for a 120x 120 large scale photo, it's not hard to sense the importance they attach to these portraits. "The whole room was only about 100 square feet, and that wedding photo took up most of one wall," says Tsai.

According to estimates of The Wedding Consulting Company, the average amount a Taiwan couple spends on a wedding, including interior decorating, furniture, wedding banquet, gift cakes, honeymoon, wedding photos, gifts, invitation cards and so forth, is approximately NT$700,000 (US$27,000). Among all these expenses, wedding photos account for between NT$30,000 and NT$50,000 (US$1100-2000).

Some people say, after you spend a huge cache of money on a wedding, all you're left with in the end is an album full of wedding pictures. How could one not care a lot about them?

For the bride, having a wedding photo could be described as one of the most important things in life, a fulfillment of her expectations and dreams.

If their bodies are not "up to standard," they quickly work to fill themselves out or shed those unwanted pounds. Some women, in order to fulfill their wish to wear a traditional Chinese wedding dress, stop by a weight loss clinic to "beautify their figures" right before going to the photo studio.

Those who don't have all that much cash must scramble to pay for this big photo op. Chen Shu-hui is an example. Five years ago she and her boyfriend, taking preparatory measures for their marital pics, started saving a year in advance, in regular monthly installments of more than NT$1000. They had saved up the money just in time to take the pictures and arrange the wedding.

After the creative stylists work their magic, everyone looks radiant and gorgeous.

Dream workshop

Though she has never had any snapped herself, every new bride has seen lots of other girls have their bridal photos taken. That is why every wife-to-be has the blueprint of her wedding pictures drawn up in her imagination. With a heart full of expectations and hopes, she walks into the photo boutique.

Chen Mei-ling, who will be wed in March, already had her wedding photos taken in December. When speaking of the photography process, Chen remarks that in the beginning she was extremely precise and painstaking about the style of photography, and she discussed it with the photo company's service lady for a long time. She even filled out a lengthy questionnaire. "Finally," says Chen Mei-ling, "the photographer arrived, and before we exchanged two sentences, he wrote down the words 'Dignified and demure.'" The results left her feeling disappointed.

Before the wedding, the photography process is so precise and careful, yet after the wedding few people bother to leaf through these photo albums that can weigh as much as four or five kilograms. And as for the huge portrait hanging on the wall, if it doesn't go completely unnoticed, then it just seems less and less like the spouses as they are in real life.

One mother recalls with exasperation that her two-year-old son pointed at the beautiful young bride in a wedding portrait and called her "Auntie," completely unaware he was speaking of his mom.

Cartoonist Chu Teh-yung, in his comic book Nasty Girls, which satirizes marriage and love, has a cynical statement about wedding photos. "Wedding photos are like prison mug shots--in order to avoid leaving evidence, they're bound to make them look completely unlike themselves."

Of course, these romantic, exquisite photographs, which are a good deal removed from reality, may be a denial of the truth, but it would be better to describe them as "cosmetic improvements." In fact, the cosmetic work starts with the names of the most famous photo companies: Cupid, My Beloved, Love You For Life, Romantic Classic, Intimate Lover, or Dream Workshop--they all attempt build up a fantasy environment just like Snow White and Prince Charming.

Modern wedding gowns originated in the West. Nowadays, Taiwan businesses not only design and produce them, they even offer the garments for export. Those ornate matrimonial photo boutiques were first invented in Taiwan. They combine bridal apparel and wedding photography, originally two separate trades. In the past, newlyweds had to go to a bridal boutique and then run over to a photo studio. Famous photo shops of that era included National Flower, International, and Lady Pai Kuang.

General manager of Sesame Wedding Plaza T.H. Chen explains that the backdrops of the old wedding photos were very simple, never going beyond a fireplace, an old fashioned buggy, a staircase or flowers. In order to save time, they would put up one scene and photograph three couples at a time. The appearance and lighting were the same for every couple.

In 1978 Jon Shy Bride World was the first enterprise to combine clothes rental with photography. They set up the firet matrimonial photo boutique on Kunming Street, writing a new page in the history of wedding portraiture.

Can't wait to get married! From the moment she tries on her wedding gown, the bride-to-be's heart is filled with the broadest range of emotions, "full of anticipation, yet full of fear.".

Don't wear the veil twice

Having photos taken in advance of the wedding day, on the other hand, was the creative undertaking of T.H. Chen.

In the past one of the taboos surrounding marriage was that brides could not wear their veil twice; otherwise, the marriage would end in divorce. Therefore, the wedding gown photos used to be shot on the wedding day itself. In the morning, they would finish all the wedding ceremonies and would hurry to the photo studio to have their photos taken. Chinese people are particular about carrying out important occasions on auspicious days. Marriage, of course, was no exception, and there were no more than five to eight "auspicious days" in any given month. So on every such day, there would be long lines at every photo company. They could even cause traffic jams.

T.H. Chen says the intense work pressures and time constraints not only gave the photo studios an uneven workload, they also put a curb on the quality of the photos.

In 1978 Chen came up with the new concept of pre-wedding wedding photos. In order to break the traditional taboo, he spread the slogan, "As long as the veil doesn't fall over her face, it doesn't count as wearing it twice." At the same time he thought up the idea of outdoor locations, setting up his tripod in the Taipei New Park and the Junghsing Gardens, at the time the city's loveliest locales.

"Not only could the consumers not accept it; even people in the trade were opposed. They thought of me as a rebel and a deviant," says T.H. Chen. In the beginning, only one out of 100 newlyweds would agree to have their photos taken before the wedding. Later on, people saw that the pre-wedding photos could be so beautiful, and they didn't have to rush for time. Gradually, the trend began to spread, and his peers followed suit.

At first portraits were taken one day, two days, one week, or even two weeks in advance. But today some people include wedding photos in their invitation cards. Wedding photos have become important for display on the wedding day, acting as signposts that notify guests which banquet hall to head for.

Nowadays not only does everybody take their photos in advance, there are even people who can not bear waiting to find a spouse and have their wedding gown photos taken while they are single. A girl still in her teens has taken her photos in wedding gowns twice, and she even became good friends with the stylist in the photo boutique. From time to time she still drops by the shop.

Following the Taipei New Park and the Junghsing Gardens, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall has also become the hot destination for outdoor shoots. Therefore, along Aikuo East Road, which runs past the memorial hall, stand rows of matrimonial photo boutiques, nearly 30 altogether. Chung Shan North Road, a necessary thoroughfare for traveling to Yangming Mountain and the coast around Tanshui, became another new outpost for the matrimonial photo boutiques. Along Sections 2 and 3 of the road lie 70 or 80 shops.

A graceful deportment, a lovely, laughing face... to imbue each image with deep feeling, the photographer "directs" each pair of newlyweds.

Heading overseas

Photo Max's Mai Tsan-wen, who is also the director of the Taipei Photography Association, conservatively estimates that there are currently about 1500 matrimonial photo boutiques in Taiwan, from large chain stores to medium-sized stores to little workshops.

According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, the number of newlyweds in all of Taiwan is between 160,000 and 170,000 per year, and there has been no remarkable increase recently. Though the number of marriages has not been rising, matrimonial boutiques are opening up one after another. How will they all manage to make a profit?

Taiwan's wedding boutiques have reached saturation point, and under the circumstances a number of businessmen have begun to explore new niches overseas. Some entrepreneurs even cooperate with travel agencies to combine tourism with matrimonial photography. Others move overseas to set up outposts.

Sun Pei-lun, who married a man in faraway Los Angeles three years ago, states that in LA there are several wedding photo boutiques opened up by Taiwanese, and all of them are doing fairly robust business.

Mai Tsan-wen, who set up a branch in mainland China more than a year ago, says, "Almost every month there are Taiwanese who go across the strait to set up matrimonial photo boutiques. In Beijing alone, there are seven or eight shops. There are no fewer than ten in Shanghai."

Within about a year, the average fee in Beijing's shops soared from RMB100-200 to RMB1200-1500, a tenfold increase.

From Western-style white gowns and veils, to traditional Chinese-style dresses and suits, to Japanese kimonos, Taiwan's matrimonial photo boutiques have transcended nationality and time. Exaggerated, silly--anything goes. （upper right photo courtesy of Chu Kuang-cheng; lower right photo courtesy of Kuan Mei-feng）

Over the mountains and down to the sea

Because of acute competition, Taiwan's wedding photos can be described as "reasonably priced and good quality" compared to Japan, where traditional wedding portraits include three settings, each one costing NT$2000-3000. But Taiwan's wedding photos commonly include between 30 and 40 settings, and every setting costs about NT$500.... what a great deal! No wonder in recent years it has become prevalent in Japan and other nations to organize wedding tours of Taiwan, coming to the island for both the honeymoon and the photos. This has motivated Japanese businessmen to learn a few tricks from Taiwan.

In addition to a reasonable price, Taiwan's techniques of photography and packaging are constantly evolving. According to Mai Tsan-wen, having been influenced by MTV, nowadays Taiwan's wedding photos seem to have become "movies on paper." A story with a plot, they start from the first time the newlyweds met, and proceed to where they fell in love, all the way to when they tie the knot. All is reproduced in photographic form.

Some newlyweds, for example, request to have their visages memorialized in McDonald's, at the Tanshui ferry station, and on Yangming Mountain, where they fell in love. The photographer must follow the newlyweds over the mountains and down to the sea, taking photos all along the way.

Everyone has different tastes and requirements; therefore, almost every scenic spot with a special ambience has been the scene of matrimonial photography. Take the suburbs of Taipei for an example. Tanshui's ferry station, Hungmao fort, Shuanghsi Park, Wulai, Shihting, Pingling, the Martyr's Shrine, the zoo in Mucha, the Taipei Municipal Fine Arts Museum, and Chiufen Town are all hot spots.

Mai Tsan-wen recalls one couple who asked to have their photo taken on a construction site, because the groom, an architect, had special feelings for his work place.

Influenced by the exaggerated effects and slapstick antics of variety shows, some of the younger generation follow suit with their matrimonial photos. Huang Chun-chi, photographer for Wedding News, indicates that for some consumers, the weirder the better. They favor, for example, pole vaulting, somersaults, standing on one's head, even photos showing only half their faces.

With the gradual liberalizing of societal norms, there are quite a few couples who take their photos in the nude. Some don't even ask extra staff to leave the room. "Once I took a photo of a nude couple. The bride got carried away with the fun, running around all over the place in nothing but her panties. The groom flew into a rage on the spot," says Huang Chun-chi with a smile.

Tsai Yung-ho doesn't entirely feel at ease with this phenomenon. He contends that matrimonial photos are increasingly exaggerated, becoming just like putting on a play. What will happen after the photos are taken? "Does it symbolize that 'when the show' s over, it's time to say goodbye'?" he asks.

Old fashioned wedding photos conform to traditional views of marriage. Perhaps they are not sufficiently lively or flowery, but they are stately and true to life. （photo courtesy of T.H. Chen, Sesame Wedding Plaza）

The new wedding palace

From photography studios and outside shoots to traveling far abroad in quest of wedding pics...today, matrimonial photo boutiques have again opened up new territory, developing suburban photo villas. Several of the larger matrimonial photo companies, such as Harvard, Sesame, Photo Max and Santiago, have all constructed wedding photo villas on the outskirts of Taipei.

Sesame Wedding Plaza, for example, has invested NT$200 million in constructing a "European-style fantasy castle," exclusively devoted to wedding photography, beside Taipei's Pitan reservoir. Inside the castle there are not only such recreational facilities as a karaoke club, a disco, a sauna, a massage parlor, a gym and a heated pool; there are numerous hotel suites in all sorts of styles. When newlyweds come here to have their photos taken, they can escape all outside interruptions and also enjoy an evening's free accommodation!

Kuo Szu-hung, who plans to get married in July, used his winter vacation to make a special trip back to Taiwan from the United States, specifically to take wedding photos. He explains that when they saw the gorgeous accommodations of the castle suite, they wanted to spend the night right then, but their parents would not allow it. "We had to save enjoying a night in a hotel for after the wedding!" he said.

Jon Shy Bride World planning department assistant manager Hsu Ching-sung observes that consumers' tastes are constantly changing. For this reason, matrimonial photo companies must introduce a new product on an average of once every three years. The so-called new products are actually new touch-up techniques, from cosmetic processing and oil paint processing to silver frosting and famille rose photography. The latest new product to rear its head is "situational wedding photography."

So-called situational photography actually uses computers to fuse scenic photos from countries all over the world with the images of the newlyweds into a single picture, allowing wedding photos to travel beyond the limitations of time and space. From a tropical Hawaiian beach to the majestic Louvre, from the Eiffel Tower to America's Grand Canyon-even the moon can serve as a backdrop. You could say they have already reached the realm where nothing is impossible.

Mai Tsan-wen mentions that turning a wedding photo into big news is also a new gimmick. Using image fusion techniques, putting a wedding photo on the cover of Time or on the banner of the United Daily News is no difficult undertaking.

The gorgeous wedding gowns in the window of the matrimonial photo boutique are the fantasies and hopes of many a young girl. Even married people are unable to resist stopping and gazing for a while.

No holds barred on the bizarre

From morning to night, from studio shots to outdoor shoots, after more than 100 poses, the backs of the newlyweds are creaking with aches and pains. Even the muscles in their faces have seized up. Everyone grunts, "Ah, I can't take it anymore." In fact, it is even more tiring for the photographer, who also has to act as director, in order to stir up the newlyweds who are not good at expressing themselves in front of the lens. Photographers not only have to be patient, but must try their best to bring out jolly emotions in the bride and groom.

Top photographer at Photo Max Feng Kuang-hui says that the lens can frighten people. Ordinary people can feel nervous when confronted with the lens and don't know how to express themselves. "Once I was snapping pictures of a groom. When he was nervous, all his facial muscles would unconsciously cramp up. Only after struggling for about three hours, did the groom's emotions level out." There was a bride who incessantly and uncontrollably blinked her eyes. Ultimately, he could not think of any other solution except to ask her to close her eyes and, crying out, "One, two, three," quickly clicked the camera as soon as her eyes popped open.

To pacify nervous emotions, some grooms bring alcohol to drink during the photo session. Once, Huang Chun-chi had only finished taking half the pictures when the groom passed out. "I could only proceed taking pictures of the bride."

In order to spice up the atmosphere, the photographers usually ask the newlyweds to think back on warm and sweet memories, such as how they felt the first time they received flowers from their loved one, or the emotions they experienced the first time they said, "I love you." Or he may tell jokes to coax a grin.

In comparison, early wedding photos were very solemn. The bride and groom seemed be very distant. It was hard to track down the traces of love in the old photos, unlike today's matrimonial photos, which are as gooey as glue, demonstrating the deep love between the bride and groom without any reservations.

Nevertheless, Tsai Yung-ho, who has been in the trade for almost eight years, laments that recently he feels the "strengthening force" that binds couples' love seems to be getting weaker and weaker. "As a photographer, I have to deliberately build up a feeling of warmth and intimacy. I feel more and more phony," he says.

Evidence of a blunder

"Keeping it as memorabilia is beautiful," says Mai Tsan-wen. He thinks that wedding photos have the function of lengthening the period of romance. "Today's newlyweds blow up their wedding photos, frame them, and hang them all over the place. The dramatic force and infectiousness of the photos can increase the sweetness and warm feelings between couples."

However, if unfortunately the marriage travels the road of divorce, the enlarged wedding photos become the most painful of reminders. Miss Chen, who works in the media, says that everyone who saw her wedding photos had praised them, and she had also been quite satisfied. But she ended up throwing them all away. The solo pictures of the bride that hung in her parents' house became the sole survivors. "When the decision to give up the marriage was made, the wedding photos became totally nonsensical," she says. Beautiful as they were, they were only "evidence of a blunder."

Even if the marriage is a happy one, after looking at the huge photographs every day over many years, some people begin to feel numb or annoyed. Some people throw them into their storage room, and others turn them against a closet wall. Frank Wang of The Wedding Consulting Company says he has a friend who went so far as to make something out of the large-scale wedding photo. He nailed four legs to it, transforming it into a table.

Other people go even farther. Once there was someone who simply tossed their photos away without thinking. Because they did not abide by the required time and location for garbage pickup, someone else hung the portrait on a telephone pole with a note attached: "This couple is not public-minded. They carelessly toss their garbage." Passersby could not notice it without laughing uproariously.

Wedding gown migratory birds

Anyone who gets married faces the possibility of getting divorced. And during the period before marriage when they have their photos taken, a lot of changes may also occur.

During one of Feng Kuang-hui's photo sessions, only the bride appeared. The groom never showed up. "I didn't ask a thing. I happily took her photos as if nothing was wrong. The only difference was there was no groom."

Quite a few people break up on the day when they have their photos taken. Hsu Ching-sung notes that brides tend to have more photos taken, while grooms want to spend less money. The clash of interests tends to trigger big fights.

"Some people finish having their photos taken, but let them sit here a long time. When we call up to ask, we find out that they have broken up and the marriage was canceled," says Tsai Yung-ho with a grin. Every matrimonial photo company has met up with this kind of problem. So gradually they have raised the deposit to between NT$5000 and NT$10,000, to avoid considerable losses if they cannot collect their money. On the other hand, although the variables in marriage are growing, when the newlyweds pose for their portraits, they still have the cautious psychology, "It only happens once in a lifetime." They hope they can preserve a memory that they'll never forget for the rest of their lives.

However, recently there are some people who use these photos to relive the fantasy moments of the past. Mai Tsan-wen reports that some people will come back every two or three years. Those kind of pictures are commonly called "anniversary photos." Mai observes, "Nowadays, those migratory birds flock back in increasingly larger numbers."

The increase of photogenic fowl returning to roost in the matrimonial photo boutiques may lessen the regret that their pictures weren't perfect the first time. And the past caution people felt toward marriage photos --" once it's snapped, it lasts your whole life"--will probably gradually fade away.

[Picture Caption]

p.49

In all of life, the most wonderful moment is a wedding. If marriage is the most important passage in life, then matrimonial photos are doubtlessly the most beautiful of "records."

p.50

Wedding photos, especially for women, are a big thing in life. For this reason, most photo studio professionals apply special craftsmanship, custom made, to the female form, including the hair-do and the appearance and number of the gowns.

p.50

After the creative stylists work their magic, everyone looks radiant and gorgeous.

p.50

Can't wait to get married! From the moment she tries on her wedding gown, the bride-to-be's heart is filled with the broadest range of emotions, "full of anticipation, yet full of fear."

p.51

A graceful deportment, a lovely, laughing face... to imbue each image with deep feeling, the photographer "directs" each pair of newlyweds.

p.52

From Western-style white gowns and veils, to traditional Chinese-style dresses and suits, to Japanese kimonos, Taiwan's matrimonial photo boutiques have transcended nationality and time. Exaggerated, silly--anything goes. (upper right photo courtesy of Chu Kuang-cheng; lower right photo courtesy of Kuan Mei-feng)

p.53

Old fashioned wedding photos conform to traditional views of marriage. Perhaps they are not sufficiently lively or flowery, but they are stately and true to life. (photo courtesy of T.H. Chen, Sesame Wedding Plaza)

p.54

The gorgeous wedding gowns in the window of the matrimonial photo boutique are the fantasies and hopes of many a young girl. Even married people are unable to resist stopping and gazing for a while.