Washington: Over a hundred women holding large circular mirrors posed nude for a photoshoot on Sunday in a show of protest against Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump’s alleged discriminatory remarks against women and minority communities during his election campaign.
The women posed at a private property in Cleveland on the eve of the Republican National Committee’s convention where the New York billionaire will be anointed the party’s nominee for President.
The women wanted to send a message to the Republican National Convention: to change Republican rhetoric on women and their bodies.
“Women’s rights are very important to me,” photographer Spencer Tunick told the local media. “Equal pay and equal representation in the House and the Senate … Women will change the world,” Tunick added, abcactionews.com reported.
The 100 women held circular mirrors over their heads and reflected light at the city to expose what they viewed as the naked truth about the Republicans, cleveland.com reported.
“Since the 2012 election, the Republican Party has moved so far extreme right I cannot stand by idly without doing my part to educate and stand up to their racist, misogynistic, patriarchal, xenophobic ways,” one of Tunick’s models told the local media.
Tunick decided to do the photoshoot as soon as Cleveland was announced as the site of this year’s Republican National Convention, which was long before the Democratic party selected Hillary Clinton as its nominee and Republicans selected Trump.
He said it was conceived to establish “empowerment against the rhetoric of the Republican party” and was not a comment on particular candidates.
“It is not a protest, it is more of an artistic action that is not aggressive, he said.
Tunick said at least 1,800 women — mostly from the Cleveland area — volunteered to be part of the project, but he could allow only 100 to participate.
The women aged from 18 to 74 were of different shapes, sizes, skin tonalities and ethnicities, and offered a variety of reasons for participating.
The shoot was being done on a private property at dawn to avoid confrontation with police or anyone else that would detract from the art’s message, he said.
“It is done when the city is sleeping,” Tunick said adding, “In this work, we do not want to confront any passersby.”
New York-based photographer Spencer Tunick, best known for organising large-scale nude shoots put together the project and photographed the women along with his wife and collaborator, Kristin Bowler, abcactionnews.com reported.
“This was a way for these women to come together and speak out with their bodies,” Bowler said.
“The idea was to hold mirrors, shining the knowledge and wisdom of women onto the convention centre,” Tunick said.
The US Authorities decided not to interfere and would not take action against Tunick.
–IANS