'Spirit Nudes' Captured by US Photographer Spencer Tunick in Guanajuato Mark Duell - Daily Mail UK
go to original November 5, 2012

Some 150 people have taken off their clothes and braved the driving rain to pose for US photographer Spencer Tunick in Mexico. (ITN)

For a man whose career is taking pictures of naked volunteers, these photos will hardly be shocking.

But to the average viewer these shots by Spencer Tunick - taken early morning at the Festival de Calacas (Festival of Skeletons) in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico - will be rather spooky.

Mr Tunick, 45, used the eerie landscape of Los Senderos village and 150 volunteers in white sheets for his ‘Spirits' project, to mark the Day of the Dead - which pays tribute to people who have died.



Big picture: Around 150 people posed for an early morning nude photo installation at the 'Festival de Calacas' (Festival of Skeletons) to commemorate the Day of the Dead, according to organisers



Directions: Spencer Tunick (centre), 45, of New York, used the eerie landscape of Los Senderos in Mexico

Mr Tunick, who was born in 1967 in Middletown, New York, trained at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan before studying at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

He has been creating astonishing human art installations for the past 20 years, gathering hundreds or thousands of naked volunteers, aiming to create scenes where humans blend with landscape.

One memorable previous effort saw him photograph 1,800 naked people arranged in the coloured seats of the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, Austria, which hosted the Euro 2008 football final.

Mr Tunick boasts on his website that he has been arrested five times while trying to work outdoors in New York City since 1992, with the last of these coming in 1999 in Times Square, Manhattan.



In memory: The installation was to mark the Day of the Dead, which commemorates those who have died



Experienced: Mr Tunick has been creating astonishing human art installations for the past 20 years, gathering hundreds or thousands of naked volunteers in various places



Spooky: But for a man whose career is taking pictures of naked volunteers, these photos will hardly be odd

However Mr Tunick was so desperate to continue working on New York’s streets that he filed a lawsuit against the city to protect himself and participants from future arrests - which he won.

But his website adds that he has not worked on the streets of New York in a decade, after he was rejected when applying for his first New York City permit after winning his case against the city.

Now it seems Mr Tunick has found a soft spot for travelling south to work in San Miguel de Allende.

He told the New York Times in June of this year: ‘I head down to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico quite often these days where I have learned to appreciate a good tequila like Casa Dragones.’

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