Student volunteers snap wedding photos for senior couples in China

The combo photo shows wedding photos taken by a student volunteer team from Wuhan University of Engineering Science in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province. (Photo/yzwb.net)

Starting in 2015, a student volunteer team from Wuhan University of Engineering Science in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, has traveled to 30 localities around the country to take wedding photos for elderly couples free of charge.

Over the past eight years, they have taken photos, including wedding photos, for more than 1,400 seniors, helping over 650 elderly couples realize their dreams of having their wedding photos taken, while documenting the touching love stories of nearly 1,000 of them. They have also held five wedding photography exhibitions.

Yu Jinwen, born after 1985, is a teacher at the university and the founder of the team. In 2014, Yu came up with the idea of taking free photos for the elderly when he was thinking about launching a volunteer program. According to Yu, when his grandfather passed away in 2010, his family members didn’t have a single photo of his grandfather, which was a great pity for him.

Many seniors had never had the chance to take wedding photos when they got married due to limited conditions. It was this that made Yu decide to take wedding photos for elderly couples.

Yu then set up the team, with 15 students as its first members, and managed to get wedding dresses and photographic equipment. Today, the team has ten branches consisting of more than 400 members across the country.

Among the elderly couples the team visited, many are veteran families and have been married for more than 40 years.

In July 2022, the team went to Ren Jinyu, a veteran, and his wife Li Zhenrong's home in Pingshan county, north China’s Hebei Province to take wedding photos for them.

Ren and Li lived separately when they got married in 1968. “We were poor and didn’t take wedding photos when we got married,” said Ren. Back then, Ren served in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. Writing letters to each other was the only way for the couple to express their love for each other.

Li Zhenrong, clad in a red wedding dress, smiles broadly while her husband Ren Jinyu salutes with his right hand. (Photo/Changjiang Daily)

For 55 years, the couple had dreamed of having their wedding photos taken. Their dream came true. In one photo, Li, clad in a red wedding dress, smiles broadly while Ren holds her with his left hand and salutes with his right hand.

Zhao Xinguo and Li Luanjiao from Huangmei county, Hubei, got married in 1974. Li Luanjiao was diagnosed with rheumatism in 1984, and later suffered a stroke. Since then, Zhao has been taking care of his wife.

When members of the team entered Zhao’s home in 2019, they saw a physiotherapy couch, an oxygen machine, a blood pressure meter and a wheelchair. After learning about the couple's story, team members carefully dressed the couple up and took the photos.

In one of the wedding photos, Zhao, dressed in a black suit, gazes at his wife, who is sitting in her wheelchair and clad in a white wedding dress.

“The team members were very good to us, and my wife was moved to tears,” Zhao wrote in a letter of thanks to the team.

A student volunteer team from Wuhan University of Engineering Science in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, has traveled to 30 localities around the country to take wedding photos for elderly couples free of charge. (Photo/WeChat account of the Communist Youth League of Wuhan)

Several of the team’s new members revisited the couple in the summer of 2022. “We were envious of the elderly couple, who love each other in sickness and in health,” said Zhao Chen, a team member, during the return visit.

In addition to documenting these seniors’ love stories, members of the team also helped these elderly couples realize their dreams and immortalised their memories through the camera lens.

On July 16, 2021, the team took a special “wedding photo” for Yu Ermei, a 91-year-old woman from Jingdezhen city, east China’s Jiangxi Province, and her “porcelain palace.”

Yu began an apprenticeship at the age of 12 under the influence of her uncle in Jingdezhen, a city known as China’s “porcelain capital.” After mastering various porcelain making skills, she started running her own business, a porcelain plant in 1988, which went on to flourish.

At the age of 80, Yu decided to spend her savings on building a palace decorated with 80 tons of porcelain pieces and more than 60,000 pieces of porcelain ware she had collected, out of her love of the industry.

In 2015, the magnificent three-storey palace was finally completed in Xinping village, Fuliang county, Jingdezhen. It was later rated as a national 2A scenic spot. Yu Ermei will continue to chase her dream, and wants to build five more “porcelain palaces.”

Chen Zhengran, a member of the team, decided to take a special “wedding photo” of the nonagenarian and her “porcelain palace” after learning about her story on a short video platform.

In the photo, Yu Ermei wears a traditional red Chinese wedding dress and stands in front of her “porcelain palace” with a big smile. The nonagenarian said she was excited because she had never worn make-up or put on such a beautiful dress before.