Two hundred men and women, with naked bodies painted in white, took part in the latest project by the American artist Spencer Tunick in southern Israel, near the Dead Sea.
The intent was to raise public awareness on the gradual lowering of the lake’s waters, which each year recedes by about one meter. The participants were all volunteers posed to represent pillars of salt, the same ones formed by the sources of the Dead Sea.
The artist, famous for his mass photos of nudes taken all over the world, has been invited by the authorities for the third time to film the body of water. The first time he photographed the Dead Sea was a decade ago and involved a thousand nude models, taken on the shores of the salt lake, before returning five years later when the waters had receded leaving behind sand and rocks.
Anna Kleiman, one of the attendees, told The Guardian that she joined the shoot to raise awareness of environmental crises: “It feels very natural, once you take off your clothes, you don’t want to put them back on.”
The art project has attracted some of the most conservative criticism in the Jewish state, but has received funding from the Ministry of Tourism and the city of Arad.