After two and a half hours sleep I got up at 2:30am to make my way down to the opera house through the CBD. Down the southern end of the city near central there were people out and about, early morning delivery vans starting their rounds, clubbers heading home etc. I made my way down to the opera house from Hyde park along Macquarie St and I noticed an increase in the number of people walking in the same general direction, I wondered if they might be heading to the opera house too. By the time I reached The library the traffic was heavy with everything from cars, to taxi’s to motor bikes and bicycles, to people walking along the street. A man in a delivery van around Bridge St asked me out his window where every one was going. I said down to the Opera house, there’s a photographer from America doing a big installation down there this morning. The delivery man asked, is everyone going to watch, and I said no, to be in it.

That was my first inkling how big the photo shoot was. By the time I made it to the entry to the Opera house forecourt, there was also a line around circular quay back up to the Ferries, and this was at 3:50am. When I got to the gates to hand in my model release form, someone two people ahead of me took the last two tickets to the concert hall shoot. The Mardi Gras attendant explained that there would be a number of set ups in addition to one on the opera house forecourt. One was to be inside the concert hall but there was only 2500 tickets to this.

Having been given a plastic bag for our clothes we then gathered at the big round-about area near the entrance to the botanic gardens but were quickly split up into people with tickets and people without tickets. There were some nerves as to what this meant as far as being part of the photo shoot but once the people without tickets were settled into a waiting area just inside the botanic gardens another Mardi Gras volunteer explained. It seems there was going to be three Installations all together, one on the Opera House fore court which would involve everyone. The second one would be inside the concert hall of the opera house which would only involve those who had a ticket, purely because of the number of seats in the hall. The third installation would be a men only installation and a women only installation in the botanic gardens. This would just be for those without tickets. So everyone was reassured and seemed happy that they would still be a part of the event.

With the Mardi Gras organisers having commissioned the event there was a massive turn out thanks to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, however there was just as great a turn out from Sydney’s heterosexual community with the result being that there was a hugely varied cross section of the community.

Initially there was just a hand full of people in the botanic gardens without tickets, but people kept arriving for more than an hour, and pretty soon there were more people waiting in the gardens than were going to go into the opera house after the first shoot. Organizing that many people takes a huge amount of effort and the Mardi Gras volunteers in their pink shirts did a brilliant job as did the lone coffee man at his truck madly making coffees for the almost three thousand people waiting in the gardens. It wasn’t until 6:30am or so before the sun was strong enough to start showing through the cloud cover, but bit by bit the sky began to get brighter. We were issued some last minute instructions reminding us all that this was a completely nude photo shoot and were therefore needed to take off all hats, socks, dangley jewelry and tattoos. That last bit got a laugh and the assistant clarified, basically if it didn’t come out of your mother with you it can’t be in the shot.

Finally when it was almost bright enough we were given the command to disrobe. In a flurry the 3000 or so people in the gardens stood and got undressed. It was very strange I think for most people to both undress outside in public, but also to undress in front of that many complete strangers. Most people took the faster is better approach, like ripping off a band aid and pretty soon every one was naked and filing out of the botanic gardens to the forecourt of the opera house. There was a rousing cheer from the 2500 ticket holders who had not been asked to disrobe yet as the non-ticket holders were being positioned first. There were cheers back from us, and hands in the air as people embraced their new found nudity and moved up to the forecourt. Apart from the act of getting undressed in front of strangers, to suddenly find myself in a sea of naked people, men and women, young and old was also a very surreal experience. When you are used to the enormous variety of colours and textures and styles of clothes and how people dress themselves, you really noticed when all of a sudden everyone looked the same. It was very equalizing. There was richly or cheaply clothed or cues as to what profession or trade people might be, no cues to social status or sexuality or taste in colour or brand preference etc. You were just a person, there was suddenly very little pretense. You also became particularly aware of the inadvertent contacts with people as you were swept along with the pack. As a general rule you give a naked person their personal space, eg in change rooms, but here we were, thighs, shoulders, hips, elbows brushing past everyone else as we moved along with the crowd.

In addition to the cheering ticket holders, the next thing we were confronted with when we came out naked onto the forecourt was the barrier right in front of us that was lined with members of the press! All sorts of still and video cameras and lights and news presenters ready to make their report of the event. The cameras whirred and with nothing for it we simply went about the business of taking up our positions. We had been told to stand on the steps of the forecourt that had been marked with chalk crosses. There were people already on the steps so I got a spot in the frond between a man in his mid-thirties and a beautiful pale skinned red haired girl in her early 20’s. My major worry was as a guy out there in public with nothing to cover your self, parts of you might respond in an inappropriate way especially when presented with thousands of naked women. I mean lets face it such a response can happen any time, and particularly in younger guys, often for no reason at all, a number of times a day. But generally speaking when you are out in public you will have pants on. Here I didn’t, and I was a little worried. We were instructed to stand shoulder to shoulder too so I was actually standing naked next to a beautiful naked girl brushing shoulders with her, surrounded by all these other naked women, younger and older, but fortunately there was so much else going on that my greatest fear never eventuated. The other thing that helps was that it was freezing cold!! Every so often the wind would blow across the crowd and your would hear a murmered “brrrrrrr” emit from the crowed as they shivered.

I think a lot of people were amazed at just how quickly any feelings of awkwardness disappeared. When everyone was standing on the steps everyone just started talking and meeting the strangers around them while we waited like it was perfectly normal, and pretty soon it was. I am absolutely certain everyone there took the opportunity to steal inquisitive glances at parts that are normally kept private, not because they were deviants or dirty, but simply because they could. It occurred to me while looking around that the experience would actually be very good therapy for anyone with a body hangup. No matter what part of your body you may feel uncomfortable with, when you are standing in a group of 5200 naked people you very quickly come to realize that what ever you might be unhappy about or might think is abnormal or unusual is actually not uncommon at all. The range of body types was truely vast and it really made you realize that it is all just part of being human.

As everyone was moving into position those of us down the front took the opportunity to look up and across the steps of the opera house as they filled and the effect was amazing. All the comments from stories on the web and example images from Spencer Tunick’s previous photo shoots don’t do justice to what it looks like to have that much humanity amassed in one spot. Not only does a crowd like that seems a hell of a lot bigger in person which is amazing, but also as well as the over all impression, which you can get from photos, when you are there in person you also see the individuals and all the characters that make up the whole. It is a shame the web images aren’t at higher resolution.

Eventually everyone was in place and we were instructed how to stand and where there were gaps to be filled by Spencer Tunick from the platform where he was working. It took a very long time to do this and lots of yelling and pointing, I mean after how specific can you be with “you, the skinny white guy”. One guy next to me said, though the thought had crossed my mind to, “It’s like hearding cats”. The first few poses were easy, facing front, facing opera house, facing opera house with hands up. Next he told the couples to kiss, and encouraged everyone else to pair up and do the same. It is one thing to stand stark naked amongst a group of strangers in the name of art, but it was another thing to actually grab one and kiss them. There was a certain trepidation, people did get them selves roughly into pairs as they awkwardly considered how they were going to go about this. At one point Spenser Tunick called out, “I said get into pairs not threesomes”, to a particularly adventurous group. Fortunately though we all received a reprieve as Spencer thought about this pose a bit more, instead he got us to lie down facing up and we had to overlap our legs with the person at our feet by hanging them over their shoulders. The person above us did the same. In this way we became an interwoven fabric as Spenser put it, covering the front of the iconic opera house.

Having thought about the couples pose, we were instructed to kiss if we wanted to but other wise embrace cheek to cheek. This arrangement worked out well for me since unfortunately for the heterosexual amongst us women are far happier to form couples with complete strangers with other women so as a result there were too few women to go around!! Another guy and myself therefore teamed up and made do for the photo. Fortunately I am very comfortable with my sexuality and can hug a man with out feeling uncomfortable, even a naked one it turns out.

We then shifted around and was amongst a group who came down off the steps to fill more of the forecourt as Spencer re-positioned to have the harbour bridge in the background. By this time there were four helicopters circling over head so it was very hard to hear what we were being told and so it took a while to set that pose up and there was a fair bit of confusion. We were even closer to the press then and one of the presenters who I later found out was the weather man on Sunrise, Grant Denyer even surcame to the call of the wild and got his gear off too and joined us for that final pose. Not sure I agree with his earlier on-air comments about that’s how babies are made, referring to us all standing out there naked, but still, good on him for joining in.

Eventually we got that final pose and we were instructed to split back into our groups. Those without tickets could get dressed while we waited for the third set-up while those with tickets were told to grab their clothes and walk with them into the concert hall ready for the second set-up. By that stage it was getting to around 8:30am and many people left after the main shoot. We were told that they needed about 400 men and 400 women for the final third shoot so if we could they would like us to stay. I was enjoying myself so stayed and waited for the third set-up.

The third set up was to take place in the Botanic Gardens and would be split into a men-only shoot and a women-only shoot. After about 30 min an assistant took us to the location they had chosen for the man shoot and told us what would be needed. There is a lake in the lower part of the gardens with three islands and a sculpture in it. The assistant was going to select those that had the look they were after for this particular set-up and they would be taken over to the islands on a small aluminum boat. The assistant, who’s name I didn’t catch chose me amongst the ones he wanted and so I was sent over to the larger of the two islands they were using by some very nervous looking Botanic Garden rangers imploring us not to step on the plants. The others where suppose to be dotted around in the background. When Spencer got there with his equipment he had a look at the set up and sent even more men over to our island. We were then told to get undressed again. This time I don’t think any one had any nerves at all and one of the other guys even said he was amazed how quickly you get use to doing this. For this set-up we stood spread out across the island in different positions as Spencer had arranged us. If anything it was slightly colder than earlier but otherwise it was an easy shoot. Once spencer had what he needed we all got dressed again and were ferried back across from the island.

Unfortunately, despite having waited it was only the men on the island that were used in this set-up so the others missed out. Spencer appologised but the others were a bit disappointed I think. It is interesting how far we had come, from nervously waiting and contemplating being asked to take of our clothes, to being disappointed at not being aksed to take off our clothes in public.

So that was it for us. The women were then taken up to the pyramid gardens for their photo shoot, but I didn’t hear how that went, perhaps if any women were there are reading this you could let us know how it went.

So overall after some initial nerves and overcoming the strangeness of it it was a great event to be a part of. Overwhelmingly I found it was just plain fun. I think being raised from birth to believe that being nude is shameful and something that should be hidden, to be suddenly told that it was OK for a very brief moment set alot of people free. I saw a lot of people after the main shoot running up the top of the steps to get their pictures taken with their friends in front of the opera house with their own cameras, striking similar poses that we had just done with Spencer Tunick, all completely naked. I admired the people who were good enough friends that they could be naked around each other and not feel strange at all. It was great to see how men and women, straight and gay, some friends but most complete strangers could come together and be naked with out feeling intimidated or like it needed to be a sexual encounter just because it was nude. It separated nudity from sexuality I think for the first time for many people. Thanks to the organizers!! It is a shame there can’t be more such events.

I will try to collect togther some links to the various news stories that were posted about the event and put them below, together with some photos.

One thing I notice looking online is that the photos posted by the media are small and low resolution or heavily censored. Does any one have any good photos of the event in full size? If so can you send them to me with any comments and I will post them here with full credit. It would be great to record the event as we remember it rather than as it was portrayed in the media. Please email them to:

haydn@haydnallbutt.com.au

Thanks so much. Comments are very welcome.