Mehron Makeup for Spencer Tunick

The Big Chill Festival is an alternative, dance, music, comedy and Art Festival currently held at Eastnor Castle in Ledbury, Herefordshire, England and drawing in excess of 30,000 attendees. Commencing every year in early August, the festival was founded in 1994 by Pete Lawrence and Katrina Larkin changing locations throughout the years to accommodate the ever growing crowds. The Big Chill Festival of 2010 was the the site of Photographer Spencer Tunick latest Installation. Mr. Tunick is noted as the photographer who uses masses of nudes to create a group pose at unique locations creating an artistic image that shows the unity of the human form with its surroundings.

The Big Chill Festival Installation of 2010 was a first for Mr. Tuick in a career of firsts. The August 2010 Installation and photograph by Spencer was the first time that he used Body Paint to change the hue of the natural color of the human nude volunteers who pose for his photographs. His intention was to make a statement about the environmental disaster of the BP Gulf Oil Spill in the pristine waters off the coast of the United States. Calling on Mehron Makeup for a Special Request Makeup Production of a creamy, water resistant, easy to apply Body Painting Makeup, Mr. Tunick was provided with a Special Request Mehron Makeup Formulation just for his project.

Mehron Makeup provided the Spencer Installation at the 2010 Big Chill Festival with 1160 four ounce bottles of specially created body makeup specifically for the models of his Installation and Photograph at Eastnor Castle in England. Mr. Tunick had a specific idea of the colors that he wanted and made a Special Makeup Request of Mehron to produce a Body Painting Makeup that his volunteers could easily apply to themselves. Mehron produced a creamy, water resistant Makeup by Special Request for Mr. Tunick in Baby Blue, Black, Blue, Pink and Yellow to represent the colors of the Gulf of Mexico environment tainted by the black oil. Besides being able to produce the specific colors in the qualities and sizes that Spencer wanted, he was happy to learn that all Mehron Makeup was researched, formulated and produced in the United States very near his home in New York, USA.

Mehron Makeup is always ready to undertake Makeup by Special Request for projects of Artists like Spencer Tunick and is proud to have been a part of his first ever Installation Photograph using Body Painting Makeup. Mehron Makeup was founded in 1927 to meet the needs of the New York Performance Community and continues to meet the needs of Artists around the world. From the Circus to the Art of a Spencer Tunick Mehron Makeup is there to add the color, durability, and consistency that Professional Performance Artists need to further their Artistic Endeavors with a Professional Makeup that has been safely formulated in the USA free from animal testing for over eight decades.

Spencer Tunick Makes a Mehron Makeup Request

Photographer Spencer Tunick is best known for his artistic photographs that feature hundreds to thousands of nudes posed in extraordinary locations. Mr. Tunick was born in Middletown, NY, USA not far from the current New York State Headquarters of Mehron, Inc. Spencer originally began his career of photographing nudes in New York City, the birthplace of his artistic vision and the birthplace of Mehron Makeup. His early photographic endeavors was a juxtaposition of the human body against the stark environment of the urban setting of New York City. Flesh imposed upon concrete, asphalt, brick, mortar, steel dirt and decay. His early work is a more intimate look at the human body in opposition to the environment.

By 1994 Spencer Tunick was gathering groups of nudes to pose in the open environs of cityscape. Soon groups totaling 65 grew into hundreds of nude bodies posing in unison to form a celebration of the diversity of the nude human form at locations around the world. The photographic genre of Mr. Tunick soon became known as "Installations", and required a crew to handle the logistics of hundreds of volunteers posing nude at locations around the world.

Just as the name of Photographer Ansel Adams has become synonymous with Nature Photographs, the name Spencer Tunick has become synonymous with the the group nude photograph. Traveling the world, choosing locations that are historical, natural, unique and plain, Spencer Tunick creates Art by joining the human form with its environment. Unlike the Body Painting Artists who use the Human Body as their canvas, Mr. Tunick has always used the blank canvas of the human body surrounded by the art of the living world. Spencer has used his Art to bring awareness to environmental issues including doing installations for Greenpeace, his latest endeavor at The Big Chill Festival in England took a new turn for the Art of Spencer Tunick.

Andy Golub, a Body Painting Artist who also resides near the New York State Headquarters of Mehron introduced Spencer Tunick to Mehron Body Painting Makeup. Churning the idea in his mind, Spencer came up with an installation idea that would combine a mass installation photograph of painted bodies to make a statement about the Gulf Oil Spill. The installation came to fruition on August 10, 2010. Mr. Tunick envisioned waves of human nudes painted in colors to represent the Gulf waters, the sky, beach, and sunset along with a wave of black to represent the oil disaster mixing with the pristine colors of the Gulf Environment.

The Big Chill Installation represents the first Spencer Tunick Photograph with painted nude bodies of the volunteers instead of a blank canvas against the setting of the location. To accomplish hundreds of bodies being painted in a timely and efficient manner, Mr. Tunick reached out to Mehron with a Special Request for Makeup. Mr. Spencer needed a Body Painting Makeup that was creamy, user friendly and water resistant. Mehron Met his needs with a formulation that his volunteers could apply without the need to have hundreds of Makeup Artists on Site. Mehron formulated the colors and kind of body painting makeup that Spencer wanted and packaged it in individual 4 oz bottles so that each of the hundreds of volunteers could be given their own bottle to apply in preparation for the historical Spencer Installation.

Mehron receives Special Requests for Makeup from all around the world for all kinds of productions, to receive a Special Makeup Request from Spencer Tunick was not only a surprise but also an honor to provide him with the Body Painting Makeup that he wanted for this Historic Spencer Photograph.