1,500 take their clothes off in Caracas for Tunick's Simon Bolivar

amplify image

Venezuelans posing nude

More than 1,500 Venezuelans shed their clothes on a main city avenue and posed for American photographer Spencer Tunick on Sunday, forming a human mosaic in front of a national symbol: a statue of independence hero Simon Bolivar.

As Tunick shouted commands through a megaphone, nude people of every shape, size and skin tone gathered on the avenue and stairs in front of the statue just before dawn. "There are some people over there with clothes, get them out of there!" Tunick shouted. "Be quiet please. Heads down!"

For the volunteers, being part of Tunick's art meant letting go of their inhibitions and enduring a two-hour series of sometimes uncomfortable positions on the pavement.

Harold Valasquez, a thin 23-year-old university student, said he was nervous before the 4:30 a.m. event, but felt free while posing.

The artist from Brooklyn, New York, has been documenting groups of nude people in public places around the world since 1992, and has been arrested multiple times while shooting in the United States.

Tunick thanked his brave volunteers, adding that in his native home of Texas, he may have got himself into trouble with the law. "I'd like to thank everyone in Caracas because I would probably be arrested in Dallas, Texas, so thank you to Caracas."