The new fashion for an artistic portrait photo: Take it underwater. Zhang Xiaomei, a 20-something Shanghai native who works in the media industry, tried it out twice.

"It was a completely different experience," says Zhang of her first such experience last May. "You get the feeling that you're cut off from the rest of the world. But also it's romantic and like a fairy tale."

She then successfully convinced her fiance to have their wedding photos taken underwater a couple of months after her first try. "Can you imagine a 1.87-meter-tall man trying out the mermaid tail under the water?" Zhang says, laughing.

A commercial underwater photo portrait is ideal for post-80 and post-90 generations who adore taking snapshots, but are looking for new ways to be artistic, says Ai Cheng, owner and photographer of No 55 Underwater Photography in Shanghai.

Ai opened a studio in Shanghai's suburb of Songjiang two years ago, building a 5-meter-deep, fan-shaped pool equipped with heating facilities to start up the business.

Ai says most of his clients are female - half of them coming for an artistic portrait photo and the rest for wedding pictures. "Some of them drag their boyfriends or fiances, who make a stink face, down to the water to shoot as well," he says.

A 30-minute tutorial on how to smile under the water so that you won't drink too much water and how to open your eyes underwater is offered in his studio for those don't know how to swim.

Wang Guoxiang, a stunt cameraman from the Shanghai Film Studio, says those who don't know how to swim have more vivid expressions underwater than good swimmers.

"But with your muscle tightened up, the expression doesn't always look pretty," Wang says.

Wang says Shanghai Film Studio's pool has been rented out for commercial shoots such as advertising or an individual's portrait photo-shooting when his crew isn't filming underwater scenes for movies and TV series.

But he found it strange to see underwater photography, the hobby for scuba divers and photographers in foreign countries, turned into a commercial activity in China.

Wang predicts it could be fashionable for two or three years, and then decline. "Something else will come out to grab the attention of those who're always hunting for novelty," he says.

Now, however, more than 1,000 Shanghainese have flocked to Wang Tao's Sparkle Underwater Photography studio in less than four months' time.

"It's a very competitive industry as we're offering a similar service to the same niche market," says Wang, who claimed a dozen counterparts pretended to be customers and came to his studio to steal ideas last year.

Prices for a set of underwater photos with a few costumes varies from 300 yuan ($48) to 5,000 yuan ($805), slightly more expensive than a portrait with both feet firmly on the ground.

shiyingying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/09/2013 page18)