from:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/why-i-undressed-at-the-dead-sea-and-why-you-should-too-1.385075Some 1,200 people stripped for Spencer Tunick’s nude photo shoot last week at the lowest point on earth.
Some 1,200 people stripped for Spencer Tunick’s nude photo shoot last
week at the lowest point on earth.
By Roni Levin
ALTOGETHER NOW: Participants in the mass naked photo shoot at the Dead
Sea Saturday. 'All of a sudden everyone was nude, and it really felt
OK.'
By 9 A.M. Saturday, the text messages had already started coming: “How
was it?”
How was it?
It was amazing. The landscape was magnificent. The Dead Sea water
didn’t burn as I had remembered from 7th grade. The people were
relaxed and in good spirits. In short, it was an experience of a
lifetime.
mass naked photo -
Photo by: Emil Salman
Although we live in a world in which the brand makes the product,
where people go to great lengths to look good and where we live in
fear of the appearance of one more wrinkle or a bulge around the
waist, there was none of that attitude Satruday when Spencer Tunick
did his photo shoot of 1,200 naked people against the backdrop of the
Dead Sea.
Everyone was attired the same, wrinkles and all, and no one could care
less. They just came in different sizes.
"Everybody was beautiful," said one woman with gleaming eyes who was
standing in line for the restrooms. “All the things that bother us so
much on a daily basis,” she explained, “just added to everyone’s
beauty.” And she was right. It took me exactly five minutes from when
the bras and underwear came off to stop staring at everyone.
About 1,200 people took part in the photo shoot and all of them were
created equal. They were all naked. And they all came here to draw
attention to the sorry state of the Dead Sea.
It didn’t start so ideally the night before, however. Everyone was
supposed to be at the Tel Aviv central train station at midnight, in
order to depart for the Dead Sea at 1 A.M.
Because everyone had to identify themselves and get checked off a
list, the first bus left at 1:30, and the last one a little after 3.
Despite the complaints, however, there was something exciting about
the sight of all these people, some in their 70s, others, young people
of 20-plus and middle-aged folks, aging beautiful people, others in
dreadlocks and a few who looked like they worked in hi-tech. I even
saw the father of an elementary school classmate, though I didn’t go
say hello.
Most of us slept on the way to the Dead Sea. When we got there,
Tunick’s assistants divided us into two groups. Tunick got on a ladder
and with the aid of a megaphone, thanked us for coming. Then it was
explained to us that there would be three different backdrops. One in
the water, a second on land and a third featuring Dead Sea mud.
Then things got underway. First people stripped to their underwear.
And then it happened. Someone took off his underwear. Then a woman
removed her bra. All of a sudden everyone was nude, and it really felt
OK.
First one picture. Then a second and so on. And hovering overhead, the
buzz of some unexpected curiosity seekers. (See accompanying
article). After all the pictures were taken, it was back onto the
buses.
If anyone asks you if you would like to undress in front of 1,000
other people, say yes. Things like this just don’t happen every day.