Fat Matchsticks

Anyone else mildly surprised that a bunch of people stripped off to get some gratuitous publicity for the Lowry Museum?  Hundreds of volunteers have stripped naked for a public photo shoot marking the 10th anniversary of the Lowry art gallery in Salford.  So why are a bunch of overweight people representative of Lowry’s marchstick men?

Spencer Tunick is photographing the models in eight different locations across Manchester and Salford.

Tunick’s aim was to capture the movement of everyday people and reflect the work of artist LS Lowry.

The photographs will be part of an exhibition at The Lowry gallery – which is named after the Salford artist.

Tunick has photographed thousands of nude volunteers across the world, most recently at the Sydney Opera House last month.

But this project, involving a total of 1,000 naked people, will be the New York-based photographer’s first multiple site installation.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live that he had been inundated with requests to join the project.

“I think I have done enough works in England where there’s sort of acceptance of my work as an art form and people really want to pose,” he said.

“I mean, we had people signing up to do this, and so we had to get that number down to 1,000. It’s taken me about 10 years to gain the trust of the English public.”

Victoria Denning, from Birmingham, said taking part was a “great experience”.

“It’s wonderful how many different shapes and sizes of bodies there are,” she said.

“You get so used to seeing a certain shape of body in magazines, and not one single person looked like that.

“Even the first time it felt normal because everyone was doing it and nobody was looking. It was just amazing.”

Sean Hayes, 28, from Cheshire, said he volunteered after seeing Tunick’s work in Sydney.

“I’m normally very shy but I wanted to come to this. You’ve just got to take the plunge.

“All you had to was look around and realise you were part of something really special.”