Say Freeze: Why 600 People Stripped and Posed on a Swiss Glacier

Six hundred warm-blooded volunteers amassed on a shrinking glacier in Switzerland yesterday to take off their clothes in the name of art. The latest installation by New York artist Spencer Tunick was a collaboration with Greenpeace, designed to draw attention to global warming and the melting Swiss glaciers, which are predicted to disappear by 2080. The Aletsch glacier receded by 115m between 2005 and 2006.

Tunick is known for his witty and sometimes provocative photographs of nude members of the public in incongruous urban settings, from Newcastle to Vienna. Earlier this year he persuaded 18,000 people to pose naked for his camera in Mexico City.

For the Aletsch shoot, Greenpeace advertised on its website for suitable volunteers for the project who could allow all day for the 'unique experience'. Participants were assured they would not 'be naked for very long'.

Tunick's 'living sculptures' have a dual artistic value for his fans, both in the act of persuading so many ordinary people to disrobe and in making nudity appear mundane, but for yesterday's work he said it was human vulnerability he wanted to emphasize. 'I want my images to go more than skin-deep. I want the viewers to feel the vulnerability of their existence and how it relates closely to the sensitivity of the world's glaciers,' he said.

The event was designed to minimize any impact on the environment, Greenpeace said. The temperature, however - which hovered around 10C - made its impact on the shivering men and women standing on the ice without their clothes.