In July 1994, Spencer Tunick phoned all the people who had expressed interest in posing nude individually for his public street photographs and asked them to come together as group. Of all the locations in New York the artist could have chosen for this first group work, he decided to pick the epicenter of world politics, the United Nations. A total of 25 people showed up to pose on that remarkable early morning, naked and brave in front of the General Assembly building. This day launched Tunick’s Reaction Zone series.

The Book Reaction Zone presents the definitive collection of Tunick’s early New York City photographic assemblages of nudes. The artworks included combine risk and urgency as Tunick collaborates with the participants creating fast-forming gestural splashes of figures, at times referencing action painting.

In his introduction for Reaction Zone, Carlo McCormick relays the feel of making work on the city streets and the pressure of creating “human graffiti” under the radar of the authorities.

Hardcover, 9 3/4” x 11 1/4” (29.8 x 24.8 cm) ,

First Edition

112 pages

Printed in the USA, 2016