18,000 Mexicans strip for US photographer

MEXICO: About 18,000 people posed nude on Sunday for US photographer Spencer Tunick in Mexico City's Zocalo Square, a new record for the American artist known for snapping his subjects in the buff.

Thousands of naked volunteers formed a giant mosaic of flesh for Tunick, who far exceeded his own previous record of 7,000 nude models set in Barcelona.

He told reporters "all eyes are looking south from the United States to Mexico City to see how a country can be free and treat the human body with happiness and not as pornography or as a crime."

According to a preliminary count by organizers, more than 18,000 people participated in the photo shoot held in the city's vast Zocalo Square, the third largest in the world.

Tunick had the throng of volunteers, which included a broad sample of ages and backgrounds, pose in the fetal position and give a salute to an imaginary flag within sight of the capital's main cathedral and National Palace.

"It was a work of art, a political statement and at the same time an act of love with our bodies," said university student Juan Lagos.

It took Tunick's associates five years to secure permission for the shoot in which the Roman Catholic cathedral on the square and the Mexican flag will not appear.

Tunick has carried out similar photo sessions in Belgium, France, Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States.

In 1994 he was arrested in Manhattan after a nude model posed for him in broad daylight.

Mexico City, Monday, AFP