Getting Naked

Spencer Tunick Explains How He Pulled Off An Awesome Photograph In Montauk

By David Lion Rattiner

A Spencer Tunick “Installation” At The Lighthouse. Photos by Casey Kelbaugh, who documented Spencer Tunick’s shoot.

If you have heard about Spencer Tunick already, we are not surprised. The photographer who has made a huge name for himself taking pictures of large groups of naked people in public spaces came to Montauk, armed with a permit. Mr. Tunick gathered hundreds who all came to Montauk with the goal of taking off their clothes at the beach near the Montauk Lighthouse and taking amazing photographs. How all this came to happen and why the world famous photographer decided to choose Montauk as a space for his work is very interesting indeed.

"I was in a show at the Parrish Art Museum and the theme of the exhibition was sand. The people there asked me if I was interested in making an installation and I said that what I needed was to get a permit. That's the biggest obstacle these days because my work is pretty well known now so I can't just run into a town and gather a bunch of naked people. They usually arrest me and not the participants."

Mr. Tunick was able to garner a permit, the first time ever he has done this with a state parks department, with the help of Terrie Sultan of the Parrish Art Museum, "Some time had past and I checked to see if the Parrish would do me a favor and apply for a permit in my name for the State Parks. This was a big thing for me because I had never gotten a permit from a State Park before. Terrie Sultan of the Parrish Art Museum helped me facilitate that and that was a hugely great thing."

The stunning photos have earned Mr. Tunick notoriety in the art world and are described as art installations. He has been documenting the live nude figure in public, with photography and video, since 1992. His installations encompass dozens, hundreds or thousands of volunteers and his photographs are records of these events. The individuals gather without their clothing, group together and metamorphose into a new shape. The Montauk installation at the Lighthouse was one of his most important, "The reason it was so important to me to get this permit was because I want to do work at Niagara Falls, so I think this sort of sets a precedence that I was allowed to do it in Montauk. This to me was one of my most important installations in New York."

The way this particular installation played out was extremely interesting. "For this particular project I sent out invitations to people who had previously signed up on my website and we rented out almost the entire Sole East hotel in Montauk. They were great over there. Some people at art galleries also sent out invitations. Everyone was telling me that the Lighthouse was iconic in Montauk and I had been to the beach there. What I really like are the stones on the beach, they are rounded and the size of softballs and I like the slope on the bluff, that's very dramatic, it's like a dirt wave that fits in with the regular waves. I really wanted to do a Lighthouse as well."

If you go online you can view some of the fascinating "installations" that Spencer has created, which include groups of naked people outside of office buildings, government buildings and monuments. This has not been an easy thing to do. In New York City, the Giuliani administration was looking to put Mr. Tunick in jail for his art which has been so widely well received by the public.

If you want to check out some his work in real life, Mr. Tunick is going to be donating some of his pieces for the Watermill Benefit in late July. It won't be this particular work of Montauk Point, but they are still powerful and striking nonetheless.

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