Have you ever woken up at 3am and thought, "hmm.... I should take all my clothes off in front of 5,199 other people and stand here for the next 2 hours bare naked?" Yeah, I never had before either, but I guess there is a first time for everything....
March is Gay Pride Month in Sydney. They hold their annual Gay Mardi Gras Parade and the city becomes alive with energy. Because Mardi Gras is such a huge tourist attraction and revenue generator to the city, the Mardi Gras board was able to commission Spencer Tunick, famed photographer, to do one of his famous mass nude works. The piece would be called "The Base", and would take place in front of the Sydney Opera House. His works include, New York's Grand Central Station, Miami, Barcelona, yet, there have been very few times has he been able to get more than 4,000 people to get nude for his photos.
My flatmate asked me if I would do this with her, and I thought about it for a second, and decided yes, why not? So we woke up at 3am on a Monday morning, rode into the city by 4am, and got in line to enter the Opera House waiting area with about 5,000 other people.
At 6:30am, the sun was finally high enough to take the photos, we were told to take our clothes off and leave them in the bags provided. There was something crazy about this mass strip, we were surrounded by men, women, mothers & daughters, friends, partners - of all shapes and sizes baring it all for art. As were were part of the first group to strip we walked past all of the still clothed groups waiting their turn to take it all off. Surprisingly, as we climbed the Opera House steps, I wasn't embarrassed or self conscious (COLD as all heck - it was about 45 degrees out) but not worried. The other group clapped as we made our way up to the stairs, everyone was so supportive of everyone else- what an amazing feeling, and what energy!
After 2 hours of posing nude, we finally were given the word to get dressed. So I got dressed and went to work... no one the wiser!
What an amazing experience, I cant wait to see his final shot. As a thank you for participating, each of us will get a print of the work, a souvenir I will never forget.
