So this last weekend I did an iconic bucket list kind of thing with a girlfriend. If you’re in Brisbane (or friends with me on the socials) you would probably already know… lol! For the rest of you – google Spencer Tunick!

Spencer is a New York photographic artist, who specialises in taking photos in pretty iconic locations around the world, of very large groups (in the thousands) of nude people. This week, as part of the MELT festival (LGBTIQ+) he was in Brisbane, and I was one of 5500 people who participated in his latest art work.

I had signed up for this late last year (or earlier this year – I can’t quite remember!), but in a way where you don’t really think it will actually happen! .. well, this one did! Confirmation information arrived a couple of weeks ago, and off we went!

We go to the first of three locations very early – 2.30am (thanks to D for being our early morning driver and picker-upper!). The early start wouldn’t have been nearly as unpleasant as it turned out, if it were not also for the fact that it was teeming with rain and quite cool – not what we had been led to expect from the weather reports! There was a whole lot of standing around before we got anywhere near the Story Bridge where the first pictures took place. We spent a couple of hours – fully dressed- waiting to be told what would happen, before we did eventually all strip off!

Initially there was a bit of peeking at other people, but in a sea of that many, the novelty of nudity almost wore off a bit- although looking at all of the different tattoos that people had was super cool! The most awkward thing really was any bending or squatting that needed to happen in the removal of clothing – the space we had for this part of the morning was not as vast as the bridge, and there were a LOT of us in it!

We were asked to pose in several different ways, one of the more unpleasant of the morning was laying flat on our backs on the very wet Story Bridge! Lots of groaning and squealing taking place when we fully made contact with the wet, slimy surface! For most of the pictures in all of the locations, we were standing, but did have one (very vulnerable feeling) ‘egg’ position that was also not so fun!… bums and bits on display, with other people either in front or behind you… did someone say awkward!?

The pictures that were taken on the bridge will be pretty epic I think – and the images I have seen on the news would back that up, but I think my favourite location was the river walk at Howard Smith Wharves. I pretty sure our crowd stretched almost the entire 870m… it certainly felt as though we did! Spencer also took some pictures in Ivory Lane, which involved what felt like quite a walk through a populate and populated area! – we did have some bystanders strip in solidarity, earning them great cheers from our crowd, but most people just watched with wide eyes!

It was interesting working with this kind of Artist – a few times in the process, he was quite temperamental, which was a bit of a surprise, but in the whole it probably lived up to my expectation! I enjoyed myself – I think my friend did too! She and I are quite similar in a whole lot of ways and she was a logical choice for someone to do this with. I’m glad we did it! It’s not all that often that you can say you were part of something so iconic! I’m looking forward to seeing the finished pictures (and receiving my own prints)