Shooting a "personal real me collection" was at first all the rage in celebrity circles. "Star" level personalities with attractive faces and sleek bodies would cooperate with a professional photographer to produce a series of carefully calculated shots. These would be published as "personal albums" wrapped in clear plastic (they could only be thumbed through after purchase), and provided as products for the enjoyment of movie stars' and singers' fans.

Now it's different. The shooting of a "personal real me collection"has become the favorite thing for teenage girls to do these days. Although they won't ever come out on the market, the girl becomes the leading lady in the photo album of her fantasies.

A young person's business, a young person's dream: Chen Hsien, head of a photo studio which initiated the craze for personal photo albums four years ago, points out that at her shop in the Hsimen area each month more than 150 people make appointments, and the shop has expanded from one photographer to ten. The PR person for administration at another studio, Chi Ling-wen, says that each month they get four or five hundred sessions, and they have expanded from one location to seven in three years.

Chi Ling-wen points out that in fact the people who shoot personal albums include men and women, young and old. But the main customers are still teenaged girls studying in middle school and high school, with a few college girls or couples. And it has become popular much earlier and faster in Taipei than in other cities or in the countryside.

A high school girl surnamed Lin says that already a third of the girls in her class have had their photos done. Another student studying in a technical college adds that the number of people who have been for photos account for more than half of her class.

What's interesting is that this personal album trend not only has teenaged girls as the main clients, even the people in the studios--from the boss to the photographers to the make-up artists and designers--are mainly young people in their twenties. Leaving aside for the moment questions of technique, the biggest advantages of young people serving young people are that communication in easier and prices are affordable.

The teenage beauty fantasy: The methods of shooting personal albums by the photo studios are made to fit the tastes of today's young people. The client prepares three to five outfits of different styles that she likes and takes them to the photo tent; the designer then lays out a set according to the clothing brought by the client.

Some companies provide Japanese kimonos, Korean dress, nightgowns, evening gowns, suits, and so on, for the girls to choose themselves. And for middle school girls who have to have the mandated uniform haircut--short and limp--have no fear: in the tent there are all different types of wigs, to let these little women realize their dream of having long hair. In addition, there are all kinds of props, from violins and saxophones to elegantly bound books and toys.

Generally speaking, one can get four types of images from two rolls of film (72 shots): dignified, dashing, romantic, take your pick. But what they all have in common is that all of them want to bring out the special "naivete and happiness" and "purity and gentility" characteristic of young ladies. Thus, under the universally used soft lighting of the photographers, each becomes a "teenage beauty fantasy."

Guaranteed more beautiful than you really are! Many studios even claim "the photographs will be even more beautiful than the real person" as a selling point to bring around image-conscious youngsters. In order to verify that they use the most refined techniques, each shop hangs but photos of the boss or salesgirls so that prospective clients can see how "different" the photos look from the actual person.

When young girls call their friends to go with them, it boosts their confidence, and others see how the first one's photos came out, and everybody wants to try.

"Everyone wants to keep his or her most youthful, most beautiful self," says Wu Nien-lun, who studies at National Chengchi University. Having seen how elegantly many classmates appeared, in the summer of her twentieth birthday she also ran off to get pictures done. After seeing her roommate's personal album, Wu Hsiu-chen, who will be a senior at Chengchi, hurried off before her 21st birthday "to give myself a record of my growing up." There was also a classmate who left a set of beautiful photos just before leaving the country to study because, so it is said, "people get ugly when they study abroad."

Let's pretend I'm a star: Then there's the "idol-worshipping" category. Recently, singer Lin Hui-ping designed a new sexy image to promote her latest song; many photographers have been called upon to "make me look the way Lin Hui-ping does." Photographer Chung Tzu-chi has come across several girls who brought stars' pictures along with them: "When I meet this kind of customer, I always tell them up front that we can photograph in the same style, but the face can never be the same."

Besides the reasons of "leaving a commemorative record," "idol worship," "love of beauty," and just plain "fun," the greatest motive factor is the impact of peers. Chi Ling-wen states that when personal albums were first becoming trendy, most of the people who came were the outgoing, active, confident type. Slowly, there were more and more quiet, unobtrusive customers. Chen Hsien adds that in the past it was necessary to take the initiative and invest a lot of persuasion in convincing the customer. Today, most of the customers are either introduced by previous clients or just walk in off the street.

Peer pressure has already turned personal albums into a part of youth culture. Almost everyone who has had the photos done will blow up one they like and hang it up in their own room like the poster of some movie star. The photos in wallets and on desktops are also the "artistic photos" of themselves. Friends will exchange them as keepsakes. Some people even go so far as to put them in their graduation yearbooks in place of the standard graduation photo.

In keeping with the trends, traditional university graduation photographs are also changing qualitatively and quantitatively, with the "personal album" style gradually being adopted. Li Yung-hsiang, photographer at a long-established studio across from National Taiwan University, notes that about a third of the people who go for graduation photos will take "academician's salon photos" in addition to the usual black-robe and mortarboard shots. The subject will either use Chinese couplet scrolls as a backdrop or lean on a prop window or bookshelves, tome in hand, gazing off in thought... the scene changes from photo to photo, and every one is different.

Beauty at a favorable price: With prosperity and the liberalization of social habits, most parents won't object much if their daughter wants to use pocket money or money earned working part time to go shoot a "personal real me album." Indeed, the low price is one of the major factors promoting the craze for personal albums.

In general it costs about NT$2,000 to 3,000 (US$80-120) for one roll of film (36 shots), and NT$4,000-5,000 for two rolls. Nowadays kids can get a part-time job, earn a little spare cash, and easily afford it. Compared to the NT$30-50,000 (US$1,200 to 2,000) for the de rigueur wedding photos (30 pictures, including rental of the dress, and the heavy makeover), the price is really affordable.

When the mother of Chen Hui-ping, a bookkeeper at a company, saw her daughter's personal album she said delightedly to her father, "Our daughter has become so beautiful!" But the more conservative father of Chang Jao-huei scolded her: "How could you be so ridiculous?!"

There are also those who go to the studio and ask the photographer to shoot "something a little different." In the experience of Chung Tzu-chi, "a little different" usually stops at swimsuits, underwear, or shots that show some shoulder or cleavage. It's rare to see any true nude photos.

For the sexier, "breezier" photos, the subjects usually hide them away in some safe place, and don't show them to anyone. Twenty-four year old Lu Yu-hsuan says that the ones she shows to her friends and family are the ones where she is dressed up all neat and pretty. Although she thinks the sexier nightgown prints are also beautifully photographed, "I'm afraid my friends and family couldn't accept them," and the only thing to do is keep them for one's own appreciation.

The case of Wu Nien-lun is even more interesting. She shot more than 100 pictures, but because her money was limited, she only took 36 home to show around. At first her mother nodded and was complimentary, but when she saw the swimsuit photos and the underwear, her face became pale and she ordered: "I paid for those, now you give every single one of those pictures back to me!"

Love of beauty knows no bounds: The name "personal real me album" feels really Japanese. Perhaps the start of its influence could be considered Japanese stars one after another daring to bare all. Little was it thought that after "real me" culture went through popularization by Taiwan entrepreneurs, it would end up selling back in Japan.

Last year the Bureau of Tourism sponsored a "Tour of Taiwan for Single Japanese Women," aimed mainly at travel agents and reporters, and included shooting an "artistic salon album" in the itinerary. Tsai Ming-ling, a staff person in the International Division of the Tourism Bureau, says that in the post-event questionnaire the degree of satisfaction with this particular item was 100%.

As you might think, love of beauty knows no national boundaries, and youth wants to leave behind a true record. But is this "real me" after all "real" or not? This is a consideration and choice that can only be made after growing up. Lu Yu-hsuan, who shot her personal album three years ago, has had a change of heart and today doesn't have the desire to do it.

Clothes designer Huang Yu-chun uses the personal album to have a record of how she has changed. "I go and do a shoot even if I just change my hairstyle. I've already gone three times so far," and she says she wants to go back and take some more.

Wu Nien-lun, who did her photos a year ago, states that at that time she felt she looked very beautiful, but now when she looks at the photos she thinks they don't resemble her at all. "The more I look at that one on the wall the more I don't like it. It feels really phoney." Although she criticizes her personal album this way, she doesn't regret having done it in the slightest. "At the very least it's a keepsake, and represents the kinds of things I did when I was twenty," she concludes.

It seems that young people in Taiwan already have a good idea how not to let youth pass them by.

[Picture Caption]

The beauty fantasy of young girls can be fulfilled in the photographer's studio.

If I were a star. . . . The "real me" photos on the wall all have that movie star look.

With the dream-like blow-ups on the wall and the variety of "personal albums" on the table, what young girl would not be intrigued?

An antique desk and a dusky setting--I'm a European prince!

Gazing in thought out the window--graduation photos are getting into a "salon" phase. This is the currently most popular "neo-classical coffee atmosphere" technique. (photo courtesy of the Lao Erh Photo Studios)

If I were a star. . . . The "real me" photos on the wall all have that movie star look.

With the dream-like blow-ups on the wall and the variety of "personal albums" on the table, what young girl would not be intrigued?