1,500 Strip In The Name Of Art In France

Almost 1,500 men and women stripped naked in the name of art in the French city of Lyon.

They gathered before dawn to join a nude photo shoot by New York artist Spencer Tunick. Directed by the artist from a crane, they posed with arms and legs in the air between shipping containers at Lyon's port in France.

Men and women of all ages, most of them from the Lyon area but some from further afield, arrived in the city at 4.30am to receive their instructions.

As dawn broke, the volunteers stripped naked and scurried into place, ready to move into formation with arms and legs held high. Questioned after the shoot, the models said they had signed up "for the experience" or "for art's sake". "I really wanted to do this, just for the pleasure of running naked on the grass in the middle of Lyon, this city that is supposed to be so bourgeois and so uptight," said one young man.

The photographs will go on display in Lyon in November, as part of the city's biennial modern art festival.

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