By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
``I took the photo five or six years ago at my atelier in Seongbuk-dong, northern Seoul.''
Photographer Hwang Gyu-tae, 70 claimed he took the nude picture of Shin Jeong-ah, the biweekly art magazine Artrade reported, Thursday.
Shin, 36, is a degree scamming former professor who hit Korea with a diploma forgery scandal last year. Her nude photo was published in the Munhwa Ilbo, a daily evening paper, Sept. 13. Later, the newspaper apologized for the publication.
Hwang is currently behind bars in a US prison for embezzlement. Artrade interviewed the imprisoned photographer by telephone and mail.
According to Hwang, he asked Shin to pose for the nude photo at a few informal occasions. ``As an artistic photographer it was a natural suggestion and Shin accepted it naturally.
``It is rather strange to see it as a sex scandal or voyeuristically,'' he said.
He suspected a female amateur photographer stole photographs from his atelier five years ago and blackmailed Shin privately before having the photo published. He also criticized the press for printing the photo without the author's permission.
Shin denied posing for any nude photograph at an interview with magazine SisaIN last September. She insisted that she just wrote the preface for a book by Hwang.