Naked States Tour

We just watched an excellent documentary about Spencer Tunick, a photographer who made it big by photographing naked people in public places. Probably his most well-known work is a nice picture of about 50 people standing naked in Grand Central Station. In the documentary (made by HBO, click here for the official website and here for the unofficial website) he tours the US, taking naked pictures in all the states, at famous monuments or downtown in some large city (i.e. Boston) or not so large city (Iowa City! The picture was taken at the Handi-Mart on Market with the corn growing out front). He even got over a thousand people to get naked for him at a Phish concert, and an entire artist's colony to get naked for him out in the desert. The funny thing is that a lot of times where he has the person get naked is very public and therefore illegal, so they have to be fast - he gets it set up (often with people helping), then he yells, "GO!" and everyone strips, runs out onto the street and assumes their pose, he snaps the camera for a minute or two, then he yells, "DONE!" and they all run off to find their clothes. He has been arrested on numerous occasions (although only once was naked himself, when he took pictures at a nudist colony - they invited him).

The surprising thing was that many of the photographs were truly amazing. He finds beautiful composition and forms and even though many of the photos are shocking, or shockingly public, they are also breathtaking.