My father was not an artist. He was in the photography business. My mom went to Parsons. She was an artist and she was an interior designer. I took my dad's cameras and played with them and was influenced by my mom's aesthetic. I found a passion in documenting my ideas with photography, because I didn't have that sort of natural ability to paint or sculpt. My ideas were coming so quickly that I wanted to get them down on paper and that was black and white photography paper.

I moved to New York City, attended the International Center for Photography for one year in 1990 and then I went off on my own. I worked for my dad on Thursdays and Fridays and then on Sundays I would do my shoots early morning on the streets of New York, my individual portraits. I would usually shoot on Sunday mornings because then there are the least amount of people on the streets. In the summer it's warm at sunrise so you have this beautiful empty landscape. You could walk 15 minutes in the financial district in the early 90s and you wouldn't see one person. There were no barriers in the streets to buildings as there are now because of possible terrorist attacks with trucks; so there were just these sweeping beautiful steps of the city. It was just this beautiful landscape down there, empty, apocalyptic city. These were my individual portraits before I started doing groups.

So many people wanted to pose for me on my individual portraits that I thought, maybe I can do everyone at once and satisfy everyone's appetite for being part of my art and get something from it for myself. My first location unfortunately was a high profile location. We went to the United Nations and the police showed up. I thought they were going to arrest us, but they were so shocked at what we were doing that they actually assisted us, diverting traffic. Afterwards the sergeants and police officers asked for art. So now they're all collectors of my work. That's how it all started. Eventually Giuliani came to power. He, for whatever reason, wasn't particularly fond of naked people on the streets, even though he enjoyed dressing up in drag [on Saturday Night Live]. He instructed the police commissioner to instruct the police to arrest me and the participants. A long battle ensued in the courts. It went up to the US Supreme Court. Finally it was ruled that I could make my work. Giuliani was reprimanded for his attack against the First Amendment. Now I travel a lot because I had so much trouble in New York making my work. I've brought the work abroad, making my work in many countries in Europe, Australia, South America. Now my summers are spent in Mexico. Hotel Matilda has been very generous to support my work down here and help me.

The body creates a new meaning for the background for a short period of time. It can either represent an organic entity that was always meant to be there or it can be like a lightning bolt that comes up against the concrete world. There are two ways to look at it. Depending on my mood, the setting, the timing, where the location is, it could be an abstraction, the body could be a substance, or it can be aggressive and have some sort of elements of protest and social angst. It's definitely phenomenological; this form, this organism that forms. It's also a mental connection that the people have and so it's a community connection but it's also on such a physical level where there are these bonding aspects to each other. So not only am I talking about viewing the work, but actually the participant really comes away with this new feeling, a new experience.

It is an equalizer and people enjoy that. It's not nudists posing; it's just everyday people who do it for the experience and to make art. The reason I like making work here in San Miguel is because we have all different types of people posing. Over half the people, maybe 75% of the people being Mexican, and then we have a mix of Americans and Europeans in there as well. But it's the Mexican will to pose in my art that is phenomenal to me; I'm just blown away by the willingness Mexicans have to want to be part of my work. I think it's based in their relationship to art, on how they're brought up and born with art in their lives and they're surrounded by imagery from Frida Kahlo to the great muralists and objects and shrines and festivals that all involve visual arts. When I was growing up in Middletown, New York the world was gray compared to growing up in Mexico. People maybe associate closer to art at a younger age here even though they're not in schools studying art. The only reason I discovered art was because my parents took me to museums, but as a child here in Mexico you just walk out the door and there's art all around you.

I painted women white, here in Mexico, and then we also did a project with 15 people on his rooftop in Red Hook, Brooklyn. They painted themselves white and then he painted with black on their bodies and then we printed the works on canvas, the photographs on canvas. I brought the canvases to him and I said, "Joe do your magic." He then painted over the photographs. He had painted on the bodies before in the photograph and so it's a multi-level, really a deep project. 5 days before the project he said "Spencer, let's do a music video." I told the participants when they showed up, "We're going to do a music video as well after I shoot the photographs. If you want to do it you can and you're painted anyway so no one is going to recognize you and it's America so they can't show it on TV, except on some stations after 10pm." These women were kickass innovative artists, powerful women and they didn't care. They don't care if they're naked on the moon. So a beautiful music video came from it. That will come out soon.

Everything is coming together, this vortex. It's all pointed towards this beautiful opening. It's exciting to me because it's my first collaboration with another artist. It's great that it's with a musician. Joseph's words are beautiful. There are so many artists in the contemporary art world whose art is illustrative and sort-of whimsical; you don't know what's behind it. Here you know. This person weaves these words into harmonious poems. You know that it's real, not fake. A lot about the art world is distancing the artist from the artwork, creating this aura about them, but Joseph is open. It's great to work with someone who is so deep, the lyrics are out there and the music is there. You're getting the real thing. You're not getting some manipulation.

There are other artists I might have liked to collaborate with that have a different style, like Peter Halley or Julian Opie. But Joseph came last year to Mexico on a short vacation to visit my wife and me. He was inspired by San Miguel. He wrote a song and a poem about San Miguel called the Doors of San Miguel. He was so inspired that he wanted to come back. Anado suggested going a show together. Anado had no idea what we were showing up with. He didn't know this was going to be the result. He was blown away.

I'm very lucky to be back on San Miguel. One of the reasons I'm here is because of the generosity of Hotel Matilda. Also, Klaudia Oliver said I should come back after my first visit. She talked to Sarah Hoch and Daniel Kandell about me being a judge for the Guanajuato International Film Festival. Hotel Matilda sponsored my accommodations and the film festival paid for the flights. That was our second visit and then we were like, hmm let's go back next summer. It's a wonderful place to spend the summer. Everything is walking distance and you're inspired around every corner with visual inspiration, from the ornate doors, the architecture, plastic balloon bubbles on sticks carried by their vendors, donkeys, mariachis, paper flowers, vendors with 100 hats on their head. Everything is extended visually here. It's really something special. I'm fascinated with the idea of a town surrounded by hot springs that come through rock crystal that you can bathe in. Then at night you can drink tequila. Where else would I want to go? Do I want to go to Greece? Are there hot springs? No. Do I want to go to Japan? Sure there are hot springs but where's the tequila? Tequila tastes a lot better than Sake… to me.

The Exhibition will be up from Aug. 3 - Nov. 9