Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from The Times of Israel.

This week, arts and culture editor Jessica Steinberg headed to Arad, 25 kilometers west of the Dead Sea, where 200 participants volunteered to be photographed in the nude for Spencer Tunicks’ third installation at the Dead Sea, raising awareness about the retreating waters of this natural phenomenon.

Tunick’s 2011 shots of the Dead Sea included shots of the models covered with Dead Sea mud. This time, they covered their bodies with white body paint, channeling Lot’s wife, the biblical character who turned into pillar of salt when she fled Sodom, and turned back to look at her city.

The volunteer models spent several hours standing barefoot on the sharp rocks and stones of the arid hilltop, posing for Tunick who stood on a ladder, a megaphone in one hand and his camera in the other.

Steinberg interviewed several of the volunteer models, and spoke with the Arad mayor and Spencer Tunick on the windy plateau overlooking the Dead Sea, bringing listeners to this unusual photoshoot on the border of the Negev and Judean Deserts.

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IMAGE: A few hundred of naked people paint in white pose for a group picture taken by Jewish American artist Spencer Tunick and his team, outside Arad, Southern Israel, on October 17, 2021. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

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