This morning at 4am I arrived at the Sydney Opera House, expecting Sydney to be all cynical (a bit like me perhaps) and to have not shown up for the Spencer Tunick photo shoot. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out, a couple of hours later as I walked up the steps of the iconic building, to realise that 5,200 people had turned out of all kinds of body shapes, sizes, ages, genders and sexualities.
The organisers expected 2,500 people so we more than doubled their expectations and it was an amazing and liberating experience. Some would say that my nude body doesn’t need any more liberating, but to have over 5,000 other naked bodies around me was fantastic. Some have said it felt tribal and completely non-judgemental and I would have to agree. They guys would probably argue that the cold weather was doing nothing to help a lot of us and that’s true too, but we were all in the same boat.
It was quite an emotional moment when I realised that, even though this was a Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras event, about 50% of participants were straight (my estimation) and that not a single one of them was concerned about being nude with gays and lesbians. Most people were nervous, some were not. I couldn’t help but think, how many friends were seeing each other nude for the first time? How many people were running into acquaintances unexpectedly at their most vulnerable and how many of them might be more confident in their bodies after the experience.
I’ll happily admit there were people I knew there that I’d been curious to see nude and now I’ve ticked that curiosity off. It’s human nature to have a look I think. I’m glad I took the plunge and joined in. It’s a once in a lifetime experience and I loved it.
Glad you got to go! Did you take any photos?
Well done mate.
Sounds like a great morning.
Only wish I could have been in Sydney for it.
Maybe Australia isn’t turning as prudish as we feared.
Bravo.
wow, that’s a good start of a day! the photo looks great too, it is like the opera waves are actually in the sea of people…
thanx for posting this. I’ve never known of anyone who participated in one of his photo shoots.
hey Brenton,It’s not that I care one way or the other about seeing you naked, but was surprised to see you cupping your “BITS”, at what i would have thought was Naked Nirvana for YOU! while all the other surprisingly unexpected people I knew there showed ………….
I found this interesting. I saw this on a news network. The Australians are very mature to have pulled this off. In some western countries you would have had protesters in it. :)
In New York, USA, on a TV morning program (the same one thatbroadcast live daily fom the Olympics) comments were made about the event, stupid things like “No close ups…” It came across like “Oh, aren’t those Austrailians so unusual…” We also would have spent equal time focusing on the protesters and the anti-gay people would have been calling it the downfall of mankind, all those queers rampantly flaunting their perversion.
@ Corve, I gues there is hope for maturity yet.
I did the spencer shoot (at the behest of my friends) here in Miami Beach in 2007. Although there weren’t thousands of people there, only about 500, it was fun and yes interesting to see my friends (girls and guys) naked after having known them for umpteen years. I think because of Spencer’s work the world is becoming more comfortable with their naked selves.
This would be nice in Germany too :-)
We came up form Melbourne to participate. It was the most exhilarating experience I’ve had. I loved being naked with so many others. I am certainly not happy with the body I have (weight issues) but it just did not matter…no one cared. Glad you got to do it too.