Spencer Tunick may be the most well publicized living artist today. Since the early 90s, he has earned respect, celebrity, and also scorn for his group and individual nude public portraits. Some call him a visionary,
and some call him the "Girls gone Wild" of the Art world; a charlatan raking in undisclosed amounts of money while refusing to pay his models.
While his photographs are thought provoking, this HBO documentary, Naked World, unveiled the true culture of the places he visited. The film, which follows Tunick's "Nude Adrift project across seven continents and ten countries, allows the voices and feelings of the subjects to be heard, adding the true back story to the otherwise non-specific photographs.
The lack of explanation is what fuels the "art" of the photographs, but this is only truly important to the amazingly small, wealthy or cultured segment of the world population who care about "art." For the rest of us, who are more concerned with real life than pretty pictures, the film explores the nude situations and the feelings of those involved.
Naked World begins in Montreal, Canada, where the Canadians arrive nude in cheerful droves at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Here Tunick, who has been chastised and arrested for his controversial work, received a reception fit for a messiah. Here we get to see the true reason for the large numbers of people who arrive for these shoots, over two thousand in Montreal. Spencer Tunick represents freedom from the rules of society. An ultimate act of defiance, being nude in public is so exhilarating and even healing that not only do his models never complain about the lack of payment, they thank Tunick afterward.
The film, however, is not all sunshine. The second destination, Paris, proved to be the worst of the lot. Tunick's method of wandering busy streets and asking strangers to pose nude outright proved to be ineffective in most foreign countries. Perhaps it was Tunick's lack of any knowledge of the French language, or perhaps France is less liberal than we have been led to believe.
While his photographs are thought provoking, this HBO documentary, Naked World, unveiled the true culture of the places he visited. The film, which follows Tunick's "Nude Adrift project across seven continents and ten countries, allows the voices and feelings of the subjects to be heard, adding the true back story to the otherwise non-specific photographs.
The lack of explanation is what fuels the "art" of the photographs, but this is only truly important to the amazingly small, wealthy or cultured segment of the world population who care about "art." For the rest of us, who are more concerned with real life than pretty pictures, the film explores the nude situations and the feelings of those involved.
Naked World begins in Montreal, Canada, where the Canadians arrive nude in cheerful droves at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Here Tunick, who has been chastised and arrested for his controversial work, received a reception fit for a messiah. Here we get to see the true reason for the large numbers of people who arrive for these shoots, over two thousand in Montreal. Spencer Tunick represents freedom from the rules of society. An ultimate act of defiance, being nude in public is so exhilarating and even healing that not only do his models never complain about the lack of payment, they thank Tunick afterward.
The film, however, is not all sunshine. The second destination, Paris, proved to be the worst of the lot. Tunick's method of wandering busy streets and asking strangers to pose nude outright proved to be ineffective in most foreign countries. Perhaps it was Tunick's lack of any knowledge of the French language, or perhaps France is less liberal than we have been led to believe.
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Ioan Said
(Guest)
(Guest)
08/04/2009
I moved country, got married, got a degree and worked in education with children with special needs and now, I am a photographer myself.
Thank you.
Ioan Said
Spencer Tunick Changed my life.
(Guest)
(Guest)
08/04/2009
I used to have a job I hated and live life in the most boring and uninteresting way. The reason being every time I had an exciting idea and shared it, my overly cautious relatives and friends, happy in the comfort of standard day to day routine.
Then I heard over the radio that Tunick was coming to Montreal, looking for people to pose naked.
Pose naked, downtown, at 7am (or something similar..) MAKES NO SENSE!!
I LOVED the idea. I started sharing it, and got a negative response as usual, but I though stuff this, I'm doing it, whatever people say. I understoon this was going to be a unique and very special moment and I wanted to be part of it!
And so I went and I loved it!
To say it was liberating is a massive understatement. I promised myself that I would never let people tell me what I could and could not do and I have been chasing and getting my dreams ever since!
I moved country, got married, got a degree and worked in education with children with special needs and n
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