Then & NowWedding photos in Hong Kong are a marriage of Western and Chinese traditions
- Until rising prosperity in the post-war years, many Hong Kong couples could not afford to mark their union with a photographic record
- In the decades since, an entire industry has emerged around pre-wedding photos
Weddings would not be weddings without a few photos to mark the occasion.
Without question, all that surrounds these milestone-marking ceremonies comprises a minor pillar industry in Hong Kong, and has done for several decades. Whatever the personal circumstances, resources will be found to make memorable “the big day”.
For the wealthy, the sky is literally the limit when it comes to what they are prepared to create; for everyone else, considerable ingenuity goes into the curation of something meaningful. Photographs form a key element of this memory making, and have done so ever since mass studio photography became broadly affordable in the 1940s.
But how were wedding photographs arranged in previous times? Until rising prosperity in the post-war years made these little luxuries possible, for many ordinary people, there was no photographic record at all; financial resources simply didn’t stretch that far.
As ever in Hong Kong, deeply practical considerations entered into the decision to arrange a wedding photograph. As a document in its own right, a posed photograph served as a form of positive identification that the new couple were formally “a couple” in the eyes of their families and wider circles, especially if no official paperwork had been recorded.
Until not that long ago, for many Chinese, several simple ceremonies at home, followed by a celebratory meal, marked their commitment to each other – and that was that. In the eyes of their world, they were henceforth married; nothing more needed to be said or done.