Hundreds of naked Australians brave the cold for mass nude photoshoot

The participants donned translucent 'Handmaid's' like robes before their big moment.
 By 
Shannon Connellan
 on 

Hundreds have ditched their robes in Melbourne, Australia for an epic mass nude photoshoot.

U.S. artist Spencer Tunick, famed for his mass nude shoots, staged one of his signature installations atop a Woolworths supermarket car park in the suburb of Prahran on Monday.

Although the temperature was sitting at a chilly 9-10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), a total of 923 participants aged 18 to 77 showed up for Tunick's mass installation.

The work, dubbed Return of the Nude, was commissioned by Melbourne's PROVOCARÉ arts festival, and saw the crowd don rather Handmaid's Tale-like translucent red cloaks before their moment of exposure. And it almost didn't happen, thanks to Woolworths originally denying the artist permission for use of the site.

It's the second Tunick has directed over the last week. He photographed 500 nudes in a laneway, Artists Lane, in the suburb of Windsor on Sunday, except this time, each was laden with a different brightly coloured shade of body paint. It's also not the first nude shoot Tunick has done in Australia. In 2010, he photographed over 5000 people standing on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

Kudos for those brave enough to get their kit off for images that will be circulated around the world. Tunick will release the official images soon, but until then, here's a little peek at the shoot:

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Credit: michael dodge/Getty Images

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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
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Credit: PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images
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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
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Credit: PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images
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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
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Credit: PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images
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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
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Credit: PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images
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Credit: PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images
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Credit: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
A photo portrait of a journalist with blonde hair and a band t-shirt.
Shannon Connellan
UK Editor

Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.

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