Get Naked at Dead Sea for Spencer Tunick

Get naked at the Dead Sea – for the environment!

Spencer Tunick, famous for his mass nude photographs of people set against unique backgrounds and landscapes, has chosen the Dead Sea to shoot his eco-sexy art.

That means hundreds to thousands of Israelis will need to volunteer to strip to their birthday suits, all for an important cause: The Dead Sea. Losing water every year, it is feared that the Dead Sea could turn into sludge if it continues to dry up at the current rate. Time to get naked for the environment?

Since 1994, Tunick’s photographic images have inspired us to see the naked form juxtaposed against the natural world through a unique lens, one that unifies and shows our vulnerability.  “The individuals en masse, without their clothing, grouped together, metamorphose into a new shape,” his website states.

“The bodies extend into and upon the landscape like a substance. These grouped masses which do not underscore sexuality become abstractions that challenge or reconfigure one’s views of nudity and privacy.”

And while the concept, ecosexuality, didn’t exist when Tunick began his work, it is a fitting description of his photography.  The artist has previously worked with Greenpeace in an effort to raise environmental awareness.

Ecosexuality, the idea that our personal lives can and must be made sustainable, is as much about art and culture as it is about the lubrication we use, the foods we eat, or the sexual aids we purchase and play with.  

The latter is often easier for green-virgins to grasp; the idea that GMO foods can have deleterious consequences on reproductive health, or that there are natural ways for men to improve sexual performance and women to enhance libidos, makes ready sense to someone newly minted into the world of sustainable sexuality.

How we view ourselves vis-à-vis the natural world, and how we take on the role of stewardship of this planet is connected to our reproductive survival too. As the authors of Gaia and the New Politics of Love point out, Mamma Earth doesn’t need us in order for the planet to survive, but we most certainly need her.

Several months ago Tunick expressed interest in shooting a mass nude scene in the Tel Aviv Port and had even hired an Israeli production company to carry out the plan. However, he dropped the project after encountering difficulty in raising funds for the complicated shoot. A total of $700,000 would have been required to close down the port compound and arrange the shoot.

The Dead Sea, long considered a crown Jewel for health and wellbeing is in the running for one of the World’s New Seven Wonders became the next choice – as he is concerned about the health of the Dead Sea. To be held next spring, with no set date, environmentalists are now looking to raise $250,000 to bring Spencer to Israel.

Update 2011: Some photos Dead Sea Naked photos below

Read more on eco-art: Dead Sea Worker Exposes Environmental Disaster Through Film