[1]
“Desde la Av. Bolívar” by Guillermo Amador Bograd [2]
The main bridge of the Caracas La Guaïra highway [3] wasn't the only thing to fall down on Sunday. More than 1,500 Venezuelans dropped their drawers for American photographer Spencer Tunick who has been capturing large groups of naked volunteers in major cities around the world.
Guillermo Amador Bograd, who blogs at El Modular (ES) [4] and Caracas Café (ES) [5], did not remove any clothing himself, but attended with his wife as volunteers for the event which he describes as “unique and unrepeatable” (ES) [6]:
Later, Tunick was lowered to the avenue and began moving people from one side to the other, mixing skin tones and positions, until he took the photo that appeared in this morning's papers across the country and world: the people formed around Bolivar, like a father with his naked children, very interesting really.
The work of positioning people, moving them from here to there was gigantic. My wife was part of that team and she told me that “it was impressive to see people, of all types, undress completely and as if it were nothing.” There was nothing sexual between them; nor was there in the way we watched them, they were just human beings. People looked in each other's eyes. They were not fat and skinny, with plastic or real breasts; they were human beings, friends, and there was that sense of camaraderie which can give you chills deep down to your soul. To know that not everything is lost, that people like this exist with spirits so pure, that deep down we are all equal and that this is not just a metaphor but a reality.
Robert Basler [7] links to a video [8] (not work safe) of the photo shoot where Tunick explains why he chose the location of Avenida Bolívar:
Um, I picked this location because I felt that the buildings were kinda like uh, like a whale in Antartica that loses all it's skin and it's like bones, like you know what I mean? So I, so I, so I felt that the building was very iconic in that sense. And then, and then, I liked the view that the highway forms with the big, empty, barren street.
Rimrod, who describes himself as an “engineer, writer, poet, astronomer, pilot, and habitant of Venezuela” says that traffic to his blog jumped overnight (ES) [9] as visitors arrived from searches for information on Venezuela and Spencer Tunick.
In the office, on the radio, everywhere, the talk of the day was about Spencer's photos and the boldness of his almost 1,500 models. I couldn't go myself because it's a little complicated, traveling more than a hundred kilometers just to strip in the middle of an avenue. But I confess that I would have done it for the experience and for art. So, I give my respect to the thousands of Tunick's models.
Finally, Afrael, a Venezuelan native now living in the United States chimes in (ES) [10]:
Today is a good day, Venezuela is once again in the international news and not thanks to the viaduct or phrases like “Mr. Danger, you are a donkey.” No, we owe it to Spencer, Spencer Tunick who, with his lens and habit of early-rising, took hundreds of photos of a little bit of Venezuelans in the “costume of Adam (and Eve).”
It's strange, despite 7,000 people having registered, less than 1,500 showed up, but in the images, they look like even fewer. Really I don't know. Perhaps Guillermo (ES) [11] or Huguito (ES) [12] can attest to how many people were there. Even though Caracas is an open-minded city, we are plenty shy and conservative when it comes to stripping in public. Or maybe it's due to the perennial quest for the perfect body, in which so many obsess, that caused many to put on the brakes.