In the flesh

By now, many of you have likely seen the astonishingly beautiful photo of more than 18,000 naked men and women bending down in prayer position, snapped in Mexico City's main square by U.S. photographer Spencer Tunick. Tunick is celebrated for his celebraton of the nude form - he travels across the nation, shooting huge groups of individuals against the most unlikely of backdrops: pouring down from a castle; in a smattering of rowboats; along a highway. They are, in my opinion, breathtaking. This last shoot, in Mexico, was his biggest nude pictorial yet.

The recent media frenzy over his work brings me back to a recent post of mine, where I wrote about a body image photographer who takes nude pictures of women with eating disorders as a way to help them in their recovery. While the two photographers have different obvious objectives, I think there's a common link: Finding beauty in diversity (Not that EDs are beautiful, but allowing the women to see they are not ugly.) Or even just allowing us, as observers, to step back and see that sometimes a body is just a body. We needn't inject so much meaning and pressure into every single part.

I wonder what it's like to be part of one of Tunick's shoots. You sign up on his web site (I checked...he's not coming to Chicago any time soon :-( ...indicating your skin tone by selecting from a handful of choices. I'm assuming he uses this to help plan the layout of his artwork, much like a mosaic, although I have no idea how such a massive undertaking (18,000 naked strangers!) actually occurs. Does he shout through a megaphone, "OK, everyone with fair skin gather on the Northwest side of the highway! And all of you with olive complexions...come this way." It would be mass, in-the-buff chaos.

However it happens, these photos honor the human form in such a gorgeous and special way it makes me yearn to take part in one. During the Mexico City shoot, one of the photos captures the thousands of people lying down, creating what is essentially a duvet of flesh. In the center, a naked man in a wheelchair looks up and out into the distance. I would be proud to hang this celebration of diversity and triumph in my home.

Would you?

Comments

While I think what Tunick does is great, I'm not sure I would hang one of his pieces in my home, it would look odd just hanging in the middle of the hallway. And if I were to have people over and they see all this nudeness, it would be quite an awkward situation.

Probably not, my family would kill me!

I am sure he's brilliant. At any time in the shoot, did he have to say "Smile"?

I may have gotten a bit carried away in my enthusiasm re. hanging nude art all over my house! But I guess I am just loving the concept...and it sure would make for interesting dinner convo!

I would hang one in my home, but not in a high traffic area...perhaps a hallway less travelled.
I love black and white photography and think some of his work would look pretty cool in that format.