ISRAEL: More than a 1,000 volunteers pose nude at the Dead Sea for U.S. artist Spencer Tunick, renowned for photographing crowds of naked people
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397752
ISRAEL: More than a 1,000 volunteers pose nude at the Dead Sea for U.S. artist Spencer Tunick, renowned for photographing crowds of naked people
- Title: ISRAEL: More than a 1,000 volunteers pose nude at the Dead Sea for U.S. artist Spencer Tunick, renowned for photographing crowds of naked people
- Date: 19th September 2011
- Summary: DEAD SEA, ISRAEL (SEPTEMBER 17, 2011) (REUTERS) THOUSAND VOLUNTEERS FLOATING ON THE DEAD SEA MORE OF NUDE PEOPLE IN THE DEAD SEA SPENCER TUNICK ON PLATFORM GIVING INSTRUCTIONS TO MODELS VARIOUS OF NUDE PEOPLE IN SEA SPENCER TUNICK WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S PHOTOGRAPHER, SPENCER TUNICK, SAYING: "I really wanted to get a thousand people on that ridge out there
- Embargoed: 4th October 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel, Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Arts,Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA2K2HU17RLT4VMGZ5ZUAY7H89W
- Story Text: A U.S. artist famed for photographing crowds of nude people at global landmarks, on Saturday (September 17)snapped pictures of hordes of nude volunteers floating in the Dead Sea.
Spencer Tunick, who has photographed hundreds of people in the buff in front of the Sydney Opera House and in Mexico City's Zocalo Square to name just two, managed to capture in a picture over 1,000 naked people floating in one of the world's saltiest seas.
"I really wanted to get a thousand people on that ridge out there, it was a dream of mine to do that work. That's why I wanted this location, that's why I fought so hard to do this location. It's because I felt that as the water level is dropping, people have to stay on top of the land and soon they won't be to enter the water anymore because there will be no water," he said.
Tunick and his crew had difficulties in raising the $60,000 needed to meet the logistical costs of setting up the photo shoot at the lowest point on Earth, where the Dead Sea is drying up at the rate of one metre (yard) a year. The local Dead Sea Council, which saw Tunick's installation as too provocative, tried to prevent it from taking place but to no avail, local media said.
The artist floated his nude multitude in the extreme buoyancy of the Dead Sea's ultra-saline waters and covered in its famous health-giving black mud.
"The installation was to raise awareness for the lowering levels of water in the Dead Sea. And I've done two other installations with Spencer Tunick but I never went abroad to do them," said one volunteer Serena Bartha who flew in from New York just to be a part of Tunick's project.
Tunick, a frequent visitor to Israel, wants to juxtapose the vulnerability of the naked body with the man-made environmental damage being inflicted on the Dead Sea, whose Jordan River water source has been diverted for agri-business.
"We have overcome a very serious obstacle with this installation. I believe we are now able to introduce art in Israel that uses the naked human form without having to worry about it being considered pornographic, or considered dirty," said Gilad Limor an Israeli living in London.
The aim was to shoot the installation before November, when people all over the planet will be able to vote by internet to choose the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. The Dead Sea is on the short-list. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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