Tunick made the comments while in Israel, where he photographed an installation of nudes on Sunday.

“I am hoping this project will represent the body as an agent of change that will bring attention to the environmental problems of the Dead Sea area,” he said.

Tunick has won acclaim for his pictures of large groups of nudes, which he has taken all over the world.

Since he started in New York in the 1990s, he has photographed nude groups in every continent and in every kind of landscape imaginable, featuring hundreds of thousands of models over the years.

It was his third visit to Israel, and he has shot photos in the Dead Sea area previously.

To read more on this story, subscribe to our new e-edition. Go to E-edition.jewishtelegraph.com.

If you have a story or an issue you want us to cover, let us know - in complete confidence - by contacting newsdesk@jewishtelegraph.com, 0161-741 2631 or via Facebook / Twitter