sarahness

Hundreds of volunteers stripped their clothes off in the name of art.

Male and female, young and old volunteers posed for Spencer Tunick, an American artist, as he pay homage to LS Lowry. The installation, Everyday People, features a photography and film mixture which focuses on ordinary men and women, referencing the style of Lowry. The work was commissioned by The Lowry gallery in Salford to celebrate its tenth birthday and will be shown there from June 12.

Lowry is best known for his “matchstick men”, a figurative work depecting a mass of bodies going about their everyday lives.

“I think being naked creates a new meaning for the background. It creates a relationship between the concrete world and the real world,” said Tunick, who is famous for his art works featuring naked bodies.

Victoria Denning, 56, a humanist from Birmingham was among the naked volunteers. She said:

“When you look at it to start off with, quite often don’t realise that it’s naked bodies being photographed. It becomes a single entity.

“Immediately you feel that it’s a piece of artwork. As soon as we stripped-off and walked down the first hill it didn’t look like naked bodies, it looked like art straight away.

“As Spencer puts you all into position and tells you what to do, you begin to see what it’s going to look like. I’m really looking forward to seeing it when it’s finished so I’ll be coming back up to Salford for that.

“There was one very drunken man, who we came across on the street, for a look who will have wondered what was in his cider last night.

“But there was nothing sexual at all and it wasn’t like exposing yourself because everybody else was in the same position.”