Naked truth of shoots exposed

• Source: Global Times
• [08:37 August 23 2010]
• Comments

Photographers snap pictures of a nude model posing at a shoot in a makeshift studio in Putuo district on Friday. Photo: Liu Dong

By Liu Dong

Police say that their hands are tied when it comes to putting the brakes on a growing underground movement in the city involving the photography of nude subjects, drawing attention to the legal ramifications concerning the act of creating a more daring form of artistic expression.

With organized shoots inviting "photographers" to come and snap pictures of young naked women being openly advertised online, local police said Sunday that they do not have the authority to prevent such activities from taking place unless they have reason to believe the photos will be used for illegal purposes, such as being sold for a profit, or publicly distributed without consent.

According to an officer surnamed He from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau in Putuo district, where numerous nude photo shoots are organized weekly, police have no rights to raid these kinds of activities without due cause.

"We need to have a pressing reason,  or suspect that people are taking nude photos for illegal purposes," the policeman, who declined to disclose his full name, told the Global Times Sunday. "If they are simply artists making art, we can't  do much since they're not breaking any law."

Lay of the land

A nude photo shoot held over the weekend at a 15-square-meter makeshift studio near East China Normal University welcomed paying photographers to take stills of women in their early 20s. The organizer surnamed Dong claimed that the subjects were models to this Global Times reporter, who attended under the guise of a photographer.

Entry fees were 300 yuan ($44) per person, which allowed photographers, whom were not required to show identification, access to one nude model in groups of up to five photographers, several of whom carried simple point-and-click cameras. For 1,500 yuan ($221), five times the price of a group shoot, photographers were entitled to their own model in a private room for up to three hours.

Dong, who never asked photographers to sign a contract before or after the shoot, placed no restrictions on what photographers were free to do with their photos once exiting the two-and-a-half-hour session.