Some 1,000 people visit the show daily, and more than 200 albums containing the pictures featured at the exhibit are sold every day.

"The public response to the photo show is better than our expectation. Nude photography is no longer taboo in people's mind," said She Shan, general secretary of the Fujian Photographic Art Society, a co-sponsor of the photo show.

He said the sponsors have discreetly chosen Guangzhou as the first place for the nude photo exhibition, because the city has been well nurtured in China's opening-up atmosphere.

In Guangzhou and Shenzhen, many photo shops have opened photo services for people who would like to have their own nude pictures.

Appearing in 1980s, nude photography was a controversial art form in China. Many photographers who took nude photos could not display their photographs openly.

On the epigraph of this photo show, organizers said: "This is a delayed photo exhibition."

Sponsors of the exhibition, the China Art Photographic Association (CAPA) and the Fujian Photographic Art Society, began to solicit entries in November 1999, when some 5,000 pieces made by over 600 photographers were submitted to the show.

Starting in July last year, an appraisal committee made up of 12 renowned professional photographers, educators, artists, critics and models were involved in selecting 107 outstanding pieces for the exhibition.

"It is an unprecedented photo exhibition, which signifies a parochial taboo is being wiped out. Chinese people are pursuing their aesthetic taste in a much more daring manner," said Liu Lei, director of CAPA.

Han Meilin, a renowned Chinese artist, wrote under the championship winning photo, "Charm of the Loess": It is brilliant that the photographer could express the Loess culture, the restrained but progressive manner of Chinese women in such a limited space.

"The art demands that both photographers and models have a lot of guts," said Huang Xusheng, the winner, who was overwhelmed with emotion. The 60-year-old experienced photographer has been committed to nude photography for over a decade.

The organization of the nude photo show also required an equal challenge, since China has not pinned down specific laws and regulations for the art form.

In order to avoid discord, organizers have employed law consultants to the show, and signed contracts with photographers and models on preservation of portraiture rights and the photographic plates.

The photo show, which will continue until February 3, has lifted up the voice of the healthy development of the nude photographic art.

(Xinhua 01/28/2001)