(Image: Emil Salman / Haaretz)


BY STEFANIE REDDING


1000 Israelis stripped down and bore all for a photoshoot at the lowest point on earth.

American Photographer Spencer Turnick turned public nudity into a political statement -- by having a mass of activists take off their underoos in an effort to save the Dead Sea -- which the AP reports is losing about 4 feet per year. Turnick tells Telegraph...

“That’s why I wanted this location, that's why I fought so hard to do this location because I felt that, as the water level is dropping, people have to stay on top of the land and soon they won’t be able to enter the water anymore because there will be no water.”

The organizers planned the naked shoot at the Dead Sea to coincide with the voting for the New 7 Wonders of Nature contest. They hoped to win a spot in the contest, pressuring Israel to make a bid for a UN World Heritage Site -- which would salvage the Dead Sea.

A writer for Time says pulling off the nudity stunt took “military precision...”

“… gathering more than 1,000 people by bus from around Israel in the dead of night, in order to arrive in time for the pre-dawn shoot -- as well as secrecy: The precise location, Mineral Beach, was kept closely guarded, in part to discourage gawkers and in part because Israelis are not all of one mind on these things.”

Some Israelis were not impressed with the naked photo shoot happening on the Jewish Sabbath. The Jerusalem Post reports the protest faced...

“... some fairly muted opposition at the last minute from the religious camp – including a condemnation from Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and another from MK Zevulon Orlev that this was ‘Sodom and Gomorroh’...”

A participant described the salty skinny-dip in a column for Haaretz.

“It was amazing. The landscape was magnificent. The Dead Sea water didn’t burn as I had remembered from 7th grade. The people were relaxed and in good spirits. In short, it was an experience of a lifetime.”