spencer tunick

I recently watched one of the documentaries on photographer, Spencer Tunick. This one, called "Naked World," followed Spencer to all seven continents to photograph naked people in each. I've also seen "Naked States," in which he does the same in all 50 US states. A pretty neat idea, although I find the actual process and the final product to be much more interesting than the films.

Spencer Tunick's photographs serve as documentation for his site-specific installations of masses of naked people in public spaces. Though the photo itself is the end product, the art piece is made up of the entire event, which requires much planning and often turns into quite the production for all involved parties. It becomes a sort of performance, particularly in the way that it involves hundreds, often thousands, of participants.

Tunick states on his website that "the individuals en masse, without their clothing, grouped together metamorphose into a new shape. The bodies extend into and upon the landscape like a substance. These grouped masses which do not underscore sexuality become abstractions that challenge or reconfigure one's views of nudity and privacy."

I love the way he uses the flesh as raw material, as if the bodies are the blocks with which he is building.


His photos take on a wide range of aesthetics and emotions. Some are dark, others are humorous. Some are rigid, while others are amorphous. Some I enjoy more than others.