Stark naked and painted in bright colours, hundreds of Melburnians have braved the cold to pose for Spencer Tunick in the first of two nude shoots.
The US artist snapped 500 nudes in frosty conditions in a Windsor laneway on Sunday afternoon as part of the Provocare Festival of the Arts.
Each participant was covered from head to toe in coloured body paint before posing in the graffiti-filled Artists Lane.
"Green down to the soles of my feet!" participant Ilona Nelson said in an Instagram post, which showed that even her hair was painted green.
About 500 Melburnians have stripped naked for the first of US artist Spencer Tunick's two shoots. Source: AAP
"Wouldn't mind if he shot in summer."
Another participant, Anlyana Karolyn, said it was a "liberating" experience and surprisingly comfortable.
"No one cares you're naked when you're all naked," she wrote on Instragram.
"Laying naked in body paint on the cold concrete with 500 strangers is more comfortable than a peak-hour train."
Tunick worked quickly for the sake of his multicoloured subjects as the mercury hovered around 12C at the time of the shoot.
A second nude installation will take place on Monday morning atop a Woolworths supermarket car park in Prahran.
Tunick received 12,000 applications for his events but could only accept a total of 1000 because of limited space.
He has been creating nude installations in iconic places for decades, including at the Sydney Opera House and at New York's Grand Central Station.
Tunick's past nude shoots have sometimes provoked controversy.
On New Year's Eve of 1994, he was arrested after snapping a nude atop a giant Christmas tree ornament at Rockefeller Center.
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