The number of people involved in the installations can get into the thousands. In 2003 Tunick photographed 7,000 naked people in Barcelona.
Spencer Tunick at work
A recent installation, commissioned by the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras featured some 5,200 participants who assembled on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. Those who volunteered to get naked included both gay and straight people. In the words of Tunick the installation sends a strong message to the world that "Australians embrace a free and equal society".
Apparently Tunick considered shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach, but decided it was too large a setting.
The BBC report notes that:
The naked models included a pregnant woman, who went straight to hospital afterwards to give birth, and a television weatherman whose viewers got to see considerably more than his usual Monday morning forecast.
In 2007 Tunick collaborated with Greenpeace in a photoshoot with an environmental theme. He positioned some 600 nude people in a "living sculpture" on the Aletsch Glacier. The purpose of the installation was to help draw attention to global warming and the shrinking of the world's glaciers. The Aletsch glacier retreated by 100m between 2005 and 2006.
Photos from the Aletsch Glacier installation
In speaking of what inspires his work, Tunick said: "A body is a living entity. It represents life, freedom, sensuality, and it is a mechanism to carry out our thoughts. A body is always beautiful to me.”
Spencer Tunick's work has been the subject of three HBO documentaries - Naked States, Naked World and Positively Naked.
See also - CBC report - video from the Guardian.
Greenpeace site with Aletsch glacier installation videos - here.
