Erotic photographer Terry Richardson refuses to work because of "harassment"

After the sex scandal with producer Harvey Weinstein, who is accused of years of molesting actresses and assistants, the topic of sexual violence has become one of the main ones in Western society. On October 24, glossy photographer Terry Richardson was handed out, who was repeatedly accused of an inappropriate approach to work. Now the publishing house Conde Nast (it publishes Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker magazines), and then the fashion brands Valentino and Bulgari refused to cooperate with Richardson.

Source: Daily Mail

"I am writing to you on a very important issue. Conde Nast would not like to collaborate with Terry Richardson anymore. All the shots that were ordered for him, but have not yet been published, need to be destroyed and replaced with other materials," James Woolhouse wrote in a letter to the publishing house.

Richardson shot one of the last advertising campaigns for Valentino, the photos were published on the brand's Instagram. Now the mention of the photographer's name has disappeared from the signatures to them. "Our last campaign with Terry Richardson was filmed in July, we have no plans to cooperate with him in the future. Of course, we take the accusations against him very seriously," the representative of the fashion house said.

On Wednesday, October 25, the termination of business with Richardson was announced by the clothing manufacturer Diesel, formerly known for aggressively sexual marketing.

Richardson himself does not consider himself guilty. He admitted that he "interacted" with models and "sometimes behaved in an overtly sexual way," but insists that this always happened with their consent.

Richardson's column in the Huffington Post for October 22

A representative of the American photographer says about the same thing: "Terry is very upset about everything that is happening. He is an artist known for sexually explicit works, and many of his professional relationships were of a sexual and explicit nature. But all the participants in the process acted voluntarily."

Terry Richardson has shot many movie and porn industry stars, musicians, models, politicians. He has done advertising campaigns for fashion houses and collaborated with glossy magazines.

It was he who directed Miley Cyrus' provocative Wrecking Ball video, which the singer then publicly regretted.

In 2001, model Liskula Cohen starred for Vogue: Richardson completely undressed himself, asked her to do the same and portray sex with another man. A woman named Anna told Jezebel in 2014 that he brought his penis close to her face during a 2008 shoot. Former model Charlotte Waters told Vocativ that in 2009, Richardson licked her naked buttocks during the shooting, demanded caresses from her and even masturbated in front of her.

In 2014, model Emma Appleton shared a message allegedly from Richardson, in which she was offered a shoot in Vogue in exchange for sex. Facebook representatives confirmed that the message was not from Richardson's account, but for American Vogue it was enough not to work with him. Women's Wear Daily interviewed people who worked with Richardson, and one of them said he saw the photographer having sex with a woman on set.

In 2014, Richardson published a column on HuffPost, "Clarifying Rumors," in which he called Appleton's accusations against him an "emotional witch hunt."

"I have never used job offers to force someone to do something they would not want to do. I treat everyone I work with with enough respect to consider them as people with free will who make their own decisions."

Although American Vogue and some brands like H&M and Target stopped working with Richardson a few years ago, until recently it had little effect on his career. In May 2016, Richardson photographed Bella Hadid for the cover of W Korea, and in August 2017, he prepared an editorial shoot for Paris Vogue.