nickel
04-29-2002, 06:54 AM
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Braving a chilly morning and scores of giggling onlookers, more than 1,000 people stripped naked in Sao Paulo to pose for a series of mass nude photographs by New York-based artist Spencer Tunick.
Tunick's volunteer models -- men and women of all sizes and colors -- posed Saturday for at least six different shots in three locations around Sao Paulo's central Ibirapuera park.
The "art event" or "installation" as Tunick referred to it, was the last in a series by the 36-year-old New Yorker called "Nude Adrift" in which he has photographed hundreds of ordinary people posing nude in 30 cities on seven continents.
His last project was called "Naked States" and involved similar photographs in all 50 U.S. states.
"This is the end of a journey. I was just in Antarctica photographing nudes and now I'm in Sao Paulo," Tunick told reporters after the shoot.
"I was expecting 600 to 800 people. To get 1,200 is a big surprise," he said, adding that most of his shoots in Europe gathered only about 400 people.
Many in the crowd of mostly young adults could not wait to peel off their clothes.
"For the first time ever, you see everyone the same, so you're not embarrassed," said Augusto Pimenta, 29, who said the experience had been "cool."
The photographs of anonymous naked bodies, sometimes limp on the ground and other times standing, have reminded some of Holocaust pictures. Tunick says his artwork is about creating a piece of public sculpture that reaffirms the body and uses it to create an abstract photograph of the urban landscape.
The event was hosted by the 25th Sao Paulo Biennial art show and was Tunick's second photo shoot in South America after photographing 450 Argentines in the nude in Buenos Aires earlier this month.
Tunick's volunteer models -- men and women of all sizes and colors -- posed Saturday for at least six different shots in three locations around Sao Paulo's central Ibirapuera park.
The "art event" or "installation" as Tunick referred to it, was the last in a series by the 36-year-old New Yorker called "Nude Adrift" in which he has photographed hundreds of ordinary people posing nude in 30 cities on seven continents.
His last project was called "Naked States" and involved similar photographs in all 50 U.S. states.
"This is the end of a journey. I was just in Antarctica photographing nudes and now I'm in Sao Paulo," Tunick told reporters after the shoot.
"I was expecting 600 to 800 people. To get 1,200 is a big surprise," he said, adding that most of his shoots in Europe gathered only about 400 people.
Many in the crowd of mostly young adults could not wait to peel off their clothes.
"For the first time ever, you see everyone the same, so you're not embarrassed," said Augusto Pimenta, 29, who said the experience had been "cool."
The photographs of anonymous naked bodies, sometimes limp on the ground and other times standing, have reminded some of Holocaust pictures. Tunick says his artwork is about creating a piece of public sculpture that reaffirms the body and uses it to create an abstract photograph of the urban landscape.
The event was hosted by the 25th Sao Paulo Biennial art show and was Tunick's second photo shoot in South America after photographing 450 Argentines in the nude in Buenos Aires earlier this month.