Photography Collection

Reuters - A record 18 000 people took off their clothes to pose for US photographic artist Spencer Tunick on Sunday in Mexico City's Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire. Tunick, who has raised eyebrows by staging mass nude photo shoots in cities from Dusseldorf, Germany, to Caracas, smashed his previous record of 7 000 volunteers set in 2003 in Barcelona, Spain. Directing with a megaphone, Tunick shot a series of pictures with his Mexican models simultaneously raising their arms, then lying on their backs in the square as well as another scene on a side street with volunteers arranged in the shape of an arrow. Police kept nosy onlookers away during the nippy early-morning shoot, and a no-fly zone was declared above the plaza. Participants said the turnout showed that Mexicans, at least in the capital, were becoming less prudish. "This proves that we're not such a conservative society anymore. We're freeing ourselves of taboos," one said.