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Fad for family photos
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Taking family portraits is an old Spring Festival tradition that faded with digital photography. Now it’s trendy again. Xu Wei develops the picture.
It’s been around 50 years since Qiu Sifan and his family posed for a portrait, and now the 66-year-old former worker wants to round up his relatives — especially his 18-month-old grandson — for a Spring Festival photo remembrance.
It was in the 1960s that Qiu and his 10 brothers, sisters and cousins gathered for a portrait with his parents and other relatives at the China Photo Studio.
He was a middle school student then and his siblings were about to split up and go to work in other cities to support the family.
“I can still remember the moment as heartwarming but a little sad,” he recalls. “Taking a photo is a way to remember a precious time of reunion and wish for a prosperous future.”
Qiu is one of an increasing number of people taking Spring Festival family portraits, once a strong annual tradition that brought families together for the Chinese lunar New Year.
At least 17 families had their photos taken yesterday at the Shanghai Mass Art Center, for example.
The tradition dates back to the early 20th century and the first days of newfangled cameras when families put on their best new clothes for the new year and posed in studios.
The studio portraits — usually formal without interesting backdrops — showed the development of families, the new children and generations.
The custom waned in times of conflict and turmoil, but regained popularity in the 1970s when families were separated during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76) and were only reunited during the Spring Festival.
When digital cameras arrived on the scene in the 1990s, everyone could take their own photos, so the portrait photography declined.
It was a secondary service at photo studios, after wedding and children’s photos.
Today family portraits — both digital and on film — are gaining in popularity, possibly because there are few other opportunities for a full family gathering of busy people during the year.
During the festival period, many families are getting photos taken at the Shanghai Mass Art Center and elsewhere.
Last year, several hundred families had portraits taken at the center — including a 28-member family of four generations — and more are expected this season.
Free family photos by professional photographers are on offer to 60 families through February 24, with reservations (133-6187-8923). Other families are welcome to take their own photos in several settings.
Backdrops include an ancient Chinese house, a school classroom from the 1980s and 1990s, and a colorful children’s room. Props include Spring Festival couplets, Chinese knots, furniture, a rocking horse, school desks and blackboard. People are drawn by the nostalgia, interesting props and opportunities for lively photos, quite different from stilted, posed portraits of earlier times.
Liu Xiuhua, a shop assistant in her 50s, says her family had a tradition of taking photos while her father was alive. Their last portrait was taken in 1988, and a month later her father died.
“On the day of that last photo, my father was very happy and excited. We dined outside the studio and had a lot of fun. It took us a long time to assemble for the portrait that captured his last happy moments,” Liu says.
Shen Yongyi, a retired worker in her 60s, puts on an elegant Chinese-style jacket and gathers her brothers, sisters and their children — all in their best clothes — for a family portrait.
This is the second year she has assembled her family for a formal Spring Festival portrait at the Shanghai Mass Art Center, and she hopes to make it a new tradition.
Shen and her family like the classroom setting, which reminds older people of their younger days. They change into colorful, fashionable sweaters and red Young Pioneer scarves. One fellow grabs a trumpet and plays a tune. It makes for a lively photo.
“Some studios offer family portrait service, but the backdrops are usually monotonous, and they aren’t free,” Shen observes.
“We will preserve these photos at my home and it will be very meaningful for us to look back on them after 10 years and remember the times we spent together.”
Sun Jun, an official with the Mass Art Center, says that apart from Spring Festival, there are few times a year when a whole family gets together.
“These photos are gifts for the new year,” he says, adding that it will become a regular free service throughout the year on designated days when professional photographers will be available. On other days, families can take their own photos. New backdrops will be added.
Taking a good family portrait isn’t easy. The photographer needs to capture the perfect, natural moment for all family members, and it’s important to get the lighting right, Sun observes.
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