Mass nude photo shoot at Dead Sea -Israel

Photographer Spencer Tunick is staging one of his trademark mass studies of nude volunteers, with a thousand Israelis posing on a Dead Sea beach.

The shoot on Saturday is part of a bid to boost Israel's campaign to have the salt-saturated feature recognised as one of the world's seven natural wonders in a global online vote in November.

Experts warn that the Dead Sea could dry out by 2050 unless urgent steps are taken to halt its demise.

'In some places the work is a little bit more controversial, and then in other places the works are accepted as a litmus test for how free a country is, or how open a country is, and how full of rights a country is,' he told a press briefing.

'For me, a country that allows the nude in art, in public space is some place that's very progressive, very open, and very caring, and very dignified.'