Spencer Tunick & “Naked World”

Maine 2 – 1997

Photographer Spencer Tunick specializes in images of nudes. The documentary, “Naked World”, follows him around the globe for his project “Nude Adrift”. His goal with this project was to photograph nudes on every continent, including Antarctica. Tunick’s work alternates between nude portraits and installations, for which the artist recruits very large groups to pose nude as part of a landscape or urban view. Personally, I found the latter images (an example is pictured above) to be the most remarkable of his work. It is also interesting to consider the juxtaposition of the intimacy of the solitary nudes and the dehumanization of the mass nudes.

Tunick expends a large amount of his energy in this film trying to convince everybody from potential models (recruited on the street), the general public and even people in the art community that his work is not sexual in nature. Though I was convinced, Tunick was largely unsuccessful in getting across the idea that sex is not inherently connected with nudity. Other interesting aspects of the film are the revealing looks at how different global cultures view nudity, art, gender relations, etc. Though Spencer Tunick is a talented artist, I feel that he and his art are of secondary interest in the film. I found the documentary more interesting as a look at the state of art and morality in today’s international society.

Note: “Naked World” is a follow-up to a previous documentary about Tunick, “Naked States”. The earlier work follows Tunick around America. I have not yet seen this film.


Nude Adrift Portrait

http://www.spencertunick.com/