JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 1,000 Israelis modeled nude for a photo installation by Spencer Tunick at the Dead Sea in a session.
The men and women between the ages of 20 and 70-something were bused early Saturday morning to an undisclosed Dead Sea location. The volunteers modeled in the sea, on the shore and covered in Dead Sea mud.
Voyeurs, some of whom flew over the site in parachutes, interrupted the session by making it impossible for the photos to be taken until they were cleared away.
Tunick said he arranged the installation in order to raise international awareness of the condition of the Dead Sea, which is rapidly receding. The photographers’s website directs viewers to vote for the Dead Sea in the New7Wonders of Nature contest.
More than 3,000 Israelis signed up to participate in the project; one-third of those were invited to join the shoot.
Tunick has photographed installations of large groups of nude people in 75 locations throughout the world
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