The American artist who is seeking nudes for Spanish beer company's centenary photo

New York photographer Spencer Tunick is looking for volunteers to take part in an artistic project that he will be creating in Granada on 20 September. Entitled Retrato Alhambra 1925 (Portrait Alhambra 1925), the project marks the centenary of the city's Alhambra brewery.

Volunteers who sign up to take part will be asked to pose naked and covered in green body paint, in an olive grove near the city. They will receive a copy of the resulting photograph signed by the artist by way of thanks.

The agency working with Cervezas Alhambra on the centenary project was looking at ways to involve people as well as give the project an artistic and cultural perspective.

"Alhambra sponsors a lot of festivals and does a lot of work to promote art and culture, so we wanted a way for people to participate to celebrate the centenary," explained Rosa Piqueras from the agency Señor Goldwind which is behind the centenary project on behalf of the brewery.

Spencer Tunick took time out to speak exclusively to SUR in English from his home in New York. "I work in a very organic and natural way and that is how things happen in my life. I received an email saying that the company wanted to commission me to do one of my artworks, so that's how it happened. Out of the blue, or out of the green."

This is the photographer's first project in Andalucía, although he has a large following in Spain having worked on projects in cities including Valencia, Barcelona, San Sebastian and Madrid.

The photographer, who is best known for his large-scale installations of groups of people posing naked in public and iconic places, said of his choice of olive groves for the project, "I was pretty blown away by the olive groves when driving from Madrid to Granada. I saw these incredible hills with lines of olive trees. It was like a David Hockney painting. It was quite riveting."

He admits that "getting naked is really a leap of faith, an adventure, an odyssey for participants". Nobody is excluded from work based on ethnicity, gender, religion, politics etc and Tunick says that an 84-year-old man who posed for one of his commissions two years ago got in touch to say he'd registered for the Granada project.

"If a wise elder has signed up again there must be something alluring and satisfying about posing naked," Tunick says by way of encouraging anyone thinking about participating but feeling shy about having to do so naked.

He adds, "When you're painted green, for people who are shy their ability to pose might be easier. They will blend in and it's a perfect way to be anonymous."

Tunick says he's "really excited to come back to Spain and make the artwork and see new faces". The last time he was here to look at possible locations for the project was during the huge power cut at the end of April and the plans he had "didn't really work out".

Getting the green body paint he says was quite challenging too. Having noticed "the importance of colour" on the tiles around the city and at the Alhambra palace, it had to be the right shade of green "It is definitely a colour that is part of the story and lifestyle of Granada," he points out.

Conveniently, the oldest company that makes body paint in the USA happens to be 10 minutes' drive from his house, so he made a number of trips to get the right shade, thickness and texture, which was tried out on a number of volunteers, including his wife. The paint is now on its way to Granada and on the day volunteers will be given an individual pot with which they will be asked to paint themselves before being told where and how to pose.

On the day Spencer says he expects to see "a field of green bodies" and adds that the day will be a collaboration effort between him and the volunteers. While difficult to meet everybody, he says he does like to try to speak to people and the fact that all participants will get a copy of one of the images as a souvenir of the day is "really nice. It's not very often within the contemporary art world that there's that kind of exchange." The photographer adds, "Without the people what would I be photographing?"

Has he tried Alhambra beer? Yes, he has. He tried it on his location-hunting trip in spring and says, "It tastes better than many beers I have had in the past. It was very nice."

Born in Granada in 1925, Alhambra has been part of the Spanish family-owned company, Mahou San Miguel since 2007.

The event forms part of Cervezas Alhambra's centenary celebrations and the final photo will be published on its social media. To register to take part in the installation go to: www.retratoalhambra1925.com.