Nakedness became the norm on Sunday as dawn broke over the Tyne quayside and an estimated 1,700 people shed their clothes for photographic artist Spencer Tunick.
And two local newspaper journalists were among the naked crowd: David Whetstone, arts and entertainment editor at The Journal, and the Evening Chronicle’s Mitya Underwood took part in the daring assignment.

David wrote afterwards: “It had become apparent that the promise that volunteers would ‘only be nude for short periods of time’ was a little white lie.

“When two men stripped ahead of time, a woman looked away bashfully. But when the order came to ‘take your kit off’, it was as if we entered a world where different rules applied.

“No-one dithered. And no-one gasped, pointed or laughed other than with the crowd. We were all in this together.

“I had impressed on my two companions, admirably broad-minded ladies from up my street, the need to stay inconspicuously at the back. But once the clothes were off, they were off too, scampering like hares towards the Millennium Bridge.

“Watched by police officers and the camera crews of BBC Three, we walked briskly towards the Tyne Bridge before assembling in a long line, three abreast.

“From up on the bridge, Tunick photographed us all standing and lying. We couldn’t hear the camera shutter. We just nervously watched the kittiwakes circling.

“The second shot took place on The Side, newly pedestrianised but still bearing tell-tale signs of a Geordie night out – small shards of glass and discarded chips.

“Some people peeped from their Quayside flats. A young couple kissing in a doorway squirmed in embarrassment. They had their clothes on.

“Thin kagouls and flip-flops were issued for a walk over the Swing Bridge. In the briskness of the morning the kagoules were welcome, but they were taken from us as we gathered under The Sage Gateshead.

“At this point the strategy of being at the back went wrong when the back suddenly became the front. Tunick reprimanded volunteers still in flip flops and ordered a girl with blue hair to go ‘right to the back’.

“Then he asked those who could – ‘the really brave ones’ – to clamber up the banked soil beneath The Sage.

“Clinging on like monkeys, we were immortalised facing the building and then facing the photographer while glancing over our shoulder at Baltic. It felt fun and a bit naughty, like being a child again.

“Today some of us will have woken up and wondered at our daring.”

Mitya (pictured) wrote: “On the night I finished my journalism training, I agreed to take part in Tunick’s famous naked ‘instalment’.

“I can’t quite remember if I thought ‘Oh, this’ll never happen’ or if I actually thought ‘yes, I look great naked, and I can’t think of a better reason to get up at sunrise on a Sunday than to pose nude with a thousand people I don’t know’. Surely it must have been the former?

“I decided denial was the best way forward. It’s not that I’m obese or have some hideous skin disorder; I just don’t like getting naked. I think there’s a time and a place for it, and this definitely was not it.

“My biggest fear wasn’t actually standing naked, it was the physical process of getting naked. It’s sort of like trying to swallow chewing gum; your body just doesn’t want to let you, no matter how hard you try.

“I had a horrible image of everyone else stripping off quietly and easily, while I was having a physical battle between my arms and my brain trying to take my knickers off; hands gripped tightly to my elastic waist-band, desperately trying to pull downwards but just not being able to do it.

“Thankfully, my knickers came off without too much of a struggle. And it was the weirdest feeling ever. I’ve never actually seen that many naked bodies, so to be suddenly be surrounded by an army of them was very surreal.

“Inevitably, I regressed to an embarrassed 10-year-old, feeling I shouldn’t be looking, but desperate to see what everything’s like – not in a perverted way, just out of curiosity.

“The atmosphere could only be described as buzzing. Despite all my fears and insecurities, I actually enjoyed getting undressed, except I felt slightly sick when I realised it wasn’t going to be as dark as it was when I arrived.

“Clambering up the grassy banks of the Sage for the third instalment was a bit of a humiliation. It was sod’s law that I got stuck behind the prettiest girl in the group so I knew I would be photographed by Press photographers, and it’s not really the sort of situation where you want to be squeezing past people to get out the way, if you know what I mean!

“So, despite sounding like I’m recovering from the most harrowing ordeal of my life, it was actually a liberating and adrenalin-filled experience. And I think if I was asked to do it again, I’d have to say yes.”