'I'm tired of trying to hide it': A bold move to bare all for Spencer Tunick photoshoot
Carly Taylor has always hidden her body from the world. Her former partners had never seen her naked.
So disrobing in public next week in the company of a crowd of strangers for New York photographer Spencer Tunick's return to Melbourne is a huge leap for the South Yarra resident.
Ms Taylor, 36, of South Yarra, has battled poor body image for many years.
“I've never actually been naked in front of anybody and that's including (during) my four-year relationship. I've always covered myself and I'm done, I'm tired of trying to hide it,” she said.
Tunick will once again bring together thousands of naked bodies, this time on a rooftop in Chapel Street in a style that has become globally recognisable and very much his own.
He first visited Melbourne in 2001, photographing 4500 naked people along the banks of the Yarra.
He has been lured back by Chapel Street's traders' association for its new winter arts festival, Provocaré, launched last year as a way to liven up the strip.
Ms Taylor has been on an intensely personal journey over the past year to reclaim confidence in her body, which came to a head when she was hospitalised for bulimia in 2017.
“Since I was 16 I've had body image issues from when I was obese to when I lost a lot of weight and had stretch marks and stuff. There’s always been something that I hated about my body,” she said.
After a glass of wine she applied to be a part of Tunick's newest project, saying once she made it to the second round of applicants she started taking the opportunity very seriously.
This would mark the end of a long journey towards learning to love herself, she said.
The reasons people chose to volunteer are as diverse as the bodies they bring with them. There’s a sense of collectivity in Tunick's work but it's also an individual endeavour.
Another body in the vast sea of skin will be 26-year-old East Melbourne powerlifter Molly Star, who competes in the 72-kilogram weight class and can deadlift 170 kilograms.
She was recently invited to compete in the World Classic Powerlifting Championships in Canada.
“I have this issue where people look at my body and they don't see a person who necessary fits the idea of an athletic woman,” she said.
“I just want to have the opportunity to put my body out there in a fun way and to say 'screw social norms around body image and screw people being made to feel embarrassed about their body'.”
Tunick will take over four sites in the Chapel Street precinct across two days, including the Woolworths rooftop car park shoot on July 9. The photographer will direct shivering, naked participants to move here or there, lie down or stand up and embrace the bitter cold for art's sake.
Debate over whether Tunick’s mass displays of nudity qualify as art, porn or exhibitionism is still robust, but the end result, Ms Taylor thinks, suggests something special about simply connecting as people.
“You don't see it the way you think you would see a bunch of naked people; you see it and everybody looks the same. It's just a bunch of human bodies and it's amazing how he does that.”
Registration for Tunick's project has now closed. More details: provocare.com.au/tunick/