Monday, March 20, 2006

I Am in the Wrong Line of Work...

AOL News: Top News - 1,500 Venezuelans Pose Nude in Public

1,500 Venezuelans Pose Nude in Public

Citizens Take It Off for American Photographer
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
ap
CARACAS, Venezuela (March 20) - More than 1,500 Venezuelans shed their clothes on a main city avenue Sunday to pose for American photographer Spencer Tunick, forming a human mosaic in front of a national symbol: a statue of independence hero Simon Bolivar.
 
     I know.  It's art.  And, a knuckle-dragging oaf such as myself shouldn't be thinking about complicated things like aesthetics and whatnots.  But, you have to admit, it would be pretty dang cool stepping off an airplane in Venezuela with your camera in hand and saying something like, "I need 1,500 of your people to get naked for me right now!"  And, they agree.
     I'm pretty sure if I showed up with my little cardboard disposable camera and said something like that, I think the good folks of Venezuela would put me on the first flight out of their country.  
     So, is it that I simply need a fancier camera?  Do I start with one naked person and work my way up to the thousands?  How does a photographer achieve such power so as to get this many people to willingly do something which they would probably never think of doing?  
 

6 comments:

  1. http://www.i-20.com/artist.php?artist_id=19  have you checked out this guys gallery? I need to ponder this over coffee, first before I comment.

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  2. His photographs always leave me sad......they look like tragedy to me. Maybe one to many holocaust films for me when I was a child, who knows but they make me feel despair.

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  3. This guy is a nut. He says he wants to 'document' mass gatherings of nude people in public places. Is it just me or don't ya think that when a person documents something, it's more like an event that happened spontanously or by someone elses planning and not your own? He calls this one "Beauty and Energy." From the photo's I saw on the internet...yes of someone documenting this so-called documentary, they are neither beautiful nor energetic.
    No, you wouldn't catch me on my hands and knees with my face inches away from some strange persons bum. My policy is, don't pose nude for anyone unless you've been dating them for at least 5 months and the camera they're using has a Fischer-Price logo on it. But if you go to the doctor and see a Fischer-Price doctors kit next to a tube of KY Jelly....run like hell.

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  4.       I saw the documentary they did on this guy a while back.   It was fascinating .... he just strolled up to people and asked them to meet him at a particular place and time and get naked for his camera .... and they did it.   I didn't see anything particularly charming or unusual about the guy that would give him that power.  I don't know.  Guess ya had to be there.   Tina

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  5. I've seen his art before, and he's certainly pulled off the same sort of thing in other cities. Covert operations when pulled off in the US. Everyone stripping in 10 seconds flat, running for the picture and then jumping back into their clothes before the police show up.
    Yep, what a job~
    Rebecca

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  6. dear Dan,
    er..ummmm...smirks..your camera...surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!lol
    Ya just like naked peoples!:) admit it silly!
    nat

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