In The Nude: a Study in Ideal Form, Lord stated that to be naked is to be deprived of clothes, and implies embarrassment and shame, while a nude, as a work of art, has no such connotations.
By 1998, American attitudes toward sexuality had continued to become more liberal than in prior decades, but the reaction to total nudity in public was generally negative.
Participants preparing to be photographed by Spencer Tunick at the Photography of groups of nude people in public places has been done around the world with or without official cooperation.
