Hundreds Pose Nude for Spencer Tunick on Swiss Glacier
Photographer Spencer Tunick is at it once again with his nude installations for a photo shoot on a Swiss glacier, but this time he’s sending a different message — a very worthy cause at that. Tunick’s most recent installation took place on Saturday with nearly 600 volunteers from all over Europe as part of a Greenpeace campaign to raise awareness for global warming.
Photo AFP/ Fabrice Coffrini Saturday August 18, 2007
Greenpeace organized the photo shoot on a stony outcrop overlooking the glacier Aletsch — the largest one in the Alps — where it descends around the south side of the Jungfrau mountain in the Upper Rhone Valley. The environmental group stated the goal was to “establish a symbolic relationship between the vulnerability of the melting glacier and the human body.”
Glaciers are sensitive to climate change and have been receding for decades, but the pace of shrinkage has been steadily increasing in recent years. Alpine glaciers have lost about one-third of their length and half their volume over the past 150 years, reports Yahoo News for Reuters. The Aletsch ice mass has retreated by 377 feet (115 meters) in the last two years alone, said Greenpeace.
AP Photo / Keystone, Laurent Gillieron Saturday August 18, 2007
Tunick is infamous for his mass nude photo shoots in cities across the world, from Newcastle, Britain, to Mexico City, where a record 18,000 people took off their clothes in the Mexican capital’s Zocalo square in May this year.
Spencer told Geneva’s Le Temps newspaper on Saturday that his photographs were both works of art and political statements. “I will try to treat the body on two levels. On an abstract level, as if they were flowers or stones. And on a more social level, to represent their vulnerability and humanity with regard to nature and the city and to remind people where we come from.”
Shiver me timbers, that had to be the iciest soirée his participants have had to perform yet.
AP Photo / Keystone, Laurent Gillieron Saturday August 18, 2007
Switzerland has about 1,800 glaciers and almost all of them are losing ground. Greenpeace believes if global warming continues as intensely as it is currently, most glaciers will disappear from the planet by 2080.
Spencer Tunick was born in Middletown, New York, US. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Emerson College in 1988. Well known for his installations featuring mass numbers of nude people posing in artistic formations, they’re typically situated in urban locations throughout the world, although he’s occasionally performed some rural shots, beach installations, and shots of individuals and small groups.
Tunic states, “A body is a living empathy. It represents life, freedom, sensuality, and it is a mechanism to carry out our thoughts. A body is always beautiful to me. It depends on the individual work and what I do with it and what kind of idea lies behind it — if age matters or not. But in my group works, the only difference is how far people can go if it rains, snows etc.”
If you’d like to participate in Tunick’s next installation, submit your entry at his site.
Related stories:
18000 Nude Volunteers for Mexico City Photo by Spencer Tunick
I imagine a lot of “poles” there went south! brrrr
They put 600 warm, naked bodies on the glacier to highlight the melting glaciers. I wonder how much of the ice melted because of that? Silly environmentalists!! Here’s some facts to help dispell the notion of “Manmade” global warming. NASA scientists have correlated rising temperatures on all the planets in our solar system. In 1991, MT.Pinotuba’s eruption put more dioxides into the atmosphere (in one shot) than the entire industrial revolution of man. The 1930s were the highest recorded temperatures of the last century. Not 1996 like Al Gore preaches in his propaganda film. Sorry, but my truck ain’t responsible for sweaty Martian microbes. Maybe increased solar activity has something to do with it??? Hmmmm.
I saw this news item, but once again….with your consummate skill and photos, your bring the news to life! Even then, these people look like blow-up dolls and kinda lifeless…I want to give them something warm to drink.
I saw this on the TV last night Deborah….I don’t think I will be rushing to volunteer for his next installation
Haha, no doubt Tom!
You have a valid point there Nitropuppy. Thanks for your information, much appreciated
Thanks Kuanyin
I feel cold just LOOKING at them.
I don’t think I’d want to rush to be in any of his installations Kim, haha!
WOWOWOWOWOW!!! Deborah…..this is really wild!!!! I can’t believe it! Great pictures!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Ev, great to see you
This is the third nude installation Spencer Tunick has done this year that I’m aware of. They certainly make for some interesting photos.
I wonder how long it takes to do that kind of shot… I can’t even see some clothes which they maybe dropped right before the shot. Brrr!
Actually I don’t believe what the NASA says…
My guess would be an all-day event Eliot. I did see a photo that showed a sea of clothing only feet away from the nudes.
But posing for even one photo would take considerable time for everyone to take their places, unless they’re temporarily marked in some way. Come to think of it, I think I did see some markings for placement at a previous installation this year.
If global warming continue, it is believes sea level will increase, this will cause small island will shrunk. Since my country consist 1300 small islands, it is believes that it will shrunk in 2015.
[...] De Roover’s introduction to photography with an SLR camera progressed to the digital era, for which he soon lost interest in the craft due [...]
I’m not rushing to volunteer either! Hats off to the brave folks on the Glacier!
nitropuppy.. just wanted to correct you bout that Mt. Pinotuba.. if you were talking about the mountain in the Philippines.. it’s Mt. Pinatubo..
Not sure where you’re reading that Nitropuppy, this took place in Switzerland.
oh my gosh the pictures are both steamy and hot..very expressive. great job
Interesting choice of descriptive words Ariel, considering the environment they were subjected to