Supermodel’s nude photos for environment stir controversy

The movement to take nude photos for charity or to protect the environment is not new in the world but in Vietnam, it seems to be unwelcome by the public.

A nude photo by Ngoc Quyen.

Recently supermodel Ngoc Quyen “bravely” launched completely nude photos which she took in the woods of Moc Chau plateau in the northern province of Son La on some newspapers.

Ngoc Quyen -nude photos

Quyen said the photos were taken to attract the public’s attention to the surrounding environment, which is being destroyed by humans.

However, Quyen’s photos were not praised. Most people said that this 23-year-old model attempted to polish her name with the photos. Many doubted that the photos were beautified with Photoshop.

“It is normal for models to take nude pictures but nude photos must have good ideas and be aesthetic. Regrettably, Ngoc Quyen’s nude photos do not have good ideas or aesthetics. I only see her naked body, with her hands barely covering her private parts, which occupies most of the pictures. Her face is emotionless. I don’t feel anything about the environment,” a VietNamNet’s reader commented.

“I liked model and actress Ngoc Quyen very much when I watched her television series but I was shocked when I saw her nude photos. I’m afraid if my children see the pictures and learn from her,” said Phuong whose daughter is a high-school student in Hanoi.

“If you ask me whether she is beautiful, I would say ‘yes’ but that beauty is not familiar to me because I’m an Asian woman,” Phuong added.

Bui Ngoc Diep from the Institute for Educational Sciences of Vietnam said that the authorities should have regulations on publishing nude photos on newspapers, especially on the Internet.

"Hot" girl Mi Van took nude photos for charity in 2009, to “protect children’s smile”.

Chu Thom, an official from the Performing Art Agency, didn’t support Ngoc Quyen’s photos. “Her face is so cold, unlike traditional Vietnamese women. One more thing, she said the photos are for the environment but the background scenes in her pictures are so green and beautiful so it doesn’t need her protection that way. I think pictures for the environment must touch viewers’ hearts and arouse viewers’ pity for victims of floods and natural disasters or cancer, etc. but not in the way Ngoc Quyen posed”.

Lawyer Le Dang Tung from the Truong Giang Law Office in Hanoi said that nude photos that are not porno are legal but they should be spread in a suitable way to tradition and moral values in Vietnam.

Many readers also reasoned: “There are many ways to protect the environment. Why did she have to take nude pictures?”

Are Ngoc Quyen’s new nude photos artistic pictures aiming to good purposes or simply photos to show off her body? This question has become a hot topic in the local media.

Earlier, a girl in Hanoi named Mi Van took nude photos for charity in 2009, to “protect children’s smile”. In these photos, Mi Van posed very sexy. She seemed to forget the topic of the shots.

After taking these shots, Mi Van lost a number of teen fans, who believed that the girl took nude photos to advertise herself under the name of a charity project.

In recent years, a movement to take nude pictures for charity has appeared in the showbiz industry in Vietnam. In the name of “doing charity”, many nude photos of celebrities have been easily launched to the public. Some young people have become “famous” thanks to these sexy shots. However, such photos were not praised for their aesthetics nor their meanings.

In a survey with the topic “What do you think about stars who take nude photos for charity?” on an online forum, up to 50 percent participants doubted that “ it necessary to do charity with nude pictures?”

The survey result shows that the public doesn’t welcome this movement.

Two years ago, Miss Vietnam 2006 Mai Phuong Thuy also rose up the media when she carried out a nude photo project to raise fund for charity. Many people protested the project, arguing that it is contrary to tradition when a Miss Vietnam takes nude pictures  and that she could do charity in other ways.

“Many world-wide superstars took nude pictures to support anti-breast cancer or to protect wild animals. Thuy should not sell her nude photos to raise fund for charity. She can sell many things and do many other jobs for charity,” said model Ha Anh on Zing website.

On Life and Law Newspaper, Chair of the Vietnam Red Cross Tran Ngoc Tang said that the association has never raised funds for charity by selling nude pictures.

“Doing charity is a good tradition. Our association only accepts charity activities that are appropriate to Vietnam’s tradition. We don’t support and even severely protest acts that are contrary to tradition or misuse charity. The Vietnam Red Cross has never accepted fund raised by uncivil nude photos of famous artists,” Tang said.

Miss Vietnam Mai Phuong Thuy

Meanwhile, model Ngoc Quyen said that she was ready to accept criticism over her nude photos. She chose this way to protect the environment because: “I want to do a thing that nobody dares to do, which will make a big hit. Many people think that it is dirty to be nude in the forest but the nature is the most beautiful when it is wild, when people mix with the nature. Preserving the wildnerness of nature is very practical”.

She said that she didn’t intent to use her body to polish her name. “Let’s see what is behind me, not my body. That’s the untouched and beautiful natural landscape. It can be beautiful like that forever if we know how to preserve it,” Quyen said.

The model also said that many people speak about protecting the environment but they don’t act. “This idea came to me a long time ago but I didn’t dare to realize it because I was afraid that nude photos could harm my image. I’m just a model so if I just call for people to protect the environment, my appeal will be ineffective. If I take normal fashion photos to call for environment protection, they won’t attract the public,” she further explained.

“It is important to see the positive side. If you only focus on the negative side, everything that is good can become bad,” she said.

Source:http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/special-report/6367/supermodel-s-nude-photos-for-environment-stir-controversy.html