Over the last couple years, Terry Richardson and controversy have gone hand in hand. Despite the controversial story from 2010 on Jezebel, and the now current #NoMoreTerry boycott going on following new rape allegations surfaced, Terry Richardson has remained quiet in this battle against him. Today however, Terry Richardson finally spoke to Huffington Post, in an attempt to debunk the rumors and allegations surfacing.
Terry Richardson is usually known as the creepy uncle photographer, known best for his harsh flash on a white wall, taking provocative photos of some of the worlds most famous celebrities and models. We've shown his lesser known work before, however he still maintains the creepy stigma, which helped him (allegedly) net over 58 million dollars last year alone. So after the most recent allegations of rape and crude behavior, Terry Richardson finally decided to speak out on the topic.
Breaking Bad star RJ Mitte posing with Terry RichardsonFour years ago, I chose to primarily ignore a cycle of Internet gossip and false accusations against me. At that time, I felt that to dignify them with a response was a betrayal of my work and my character. When these allegations resurfaced over the past few months, they seemed especially vicious and distorted, moving outside the realm of critical dialogue and becoming nothing more than an emotionally-charged witch hunt. Enabled and protected by the freewheeling and often times anonymous nature of the Internet, people have become comfortable concocting hate-filled and libelous tales about my professional and personal lives. In writing this, I make a humble attempt at correcting these rumors, because I have come to realize that absent my voice in the conversation, all that remain are the lies.
When I moved to New York in 1990 to take pictures, a lot of my work was a documentation of my life in the East Village; it was gritty, transgressive, and the aesthetic broke with the well-lit, polished fashion images of the time. My first big campaign, shot in 1994, was a provocative picture of a couple embracing in a bar. It was a shocking image for its time and the first instance a photograph of this nature was used in a major fashion advertisement.
Like Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, and so many others before me, sexual imagery has always been a part of my photography. Ten years ago, in 2004, I presented some of this work at a gallery show in New York City, accompanied by a book of the photos. The show was very popular and highly praised. The images depicted sexual situations and explored the beauty, rawness, and humor that sexuality entails. I collaborated with consenting adult women who were fully aware of the nature of the work, and as is typical with any project, everyone signed releases. I have never used an offer of work or a threat of rebuke to coerce someone into something that they did not want to do. I give everyone that I work with enough respect to view them as having ownership of their free will and making their decisions accordingly, and as such, it has been difficult to see myself as a target of revisionist history. Sadly, in the on-going quest for controversy-generated page views, sloppy journalism fueled by sensationalized, malicious, and manipulative recountings of this work has given rise to angry Internet crusades. Well-intentioned or not, they are based on lies. Believing such rumors at face value does a disservice not only to the spirit of artistic endeavor, but most importantly, to the real victims of exploitation and abuse.
People will always have strong opinions about challenging images, and the dichotomy of sex is that it is both the most natural and universal of human behaviors and also one of the most sensitive and divisive. Over the course of my career, I have come to accept that some of my more provocative work courts controversy, and as an artist, I value the discourse that arises from this. I can only hope for this discourse to be informed by fact, so that whether you love my work or hate it, you give it, and me, the benefit of the truth.
Whether you choose to believe him is up to you. However, at this time...no charges have been made against Terry Richardson for rape or sexual assault.
[via HuffingtonPost]
A lot of today's feminism frustrates me, but some of what I'm seeing in these comments is every bit as disturbing and frustrating, especially from what I'm assuming are fellow male photographers. I actually hope that some of you never have daughters.
You can do a quick scroll through the comments and see how many people are already blaming the girl or agency, but yet you wonder why she did have the stomach to come forward sooner? SERIOUSLY!? Could you imagine if the media got a hold of it and turned it into a circus? Just b/c someone doesn't speak out on the situation at that moment doesn't mean it didn't happen, or that it happened out of malice.
Asking someone to stop, or saying "no" aren't what classifies it as rape or assault. It seems like every tutorial, workshop, seminar, book, mentor warns against touching female models, especially if you're a male photographer, but some of you are acting stunned by the notion of inappropriate. Hell, growing up as a MAN, you are - or at least should be - made mindful about appropriate ways to interact with women.
I'm torn by the constant allegations against Richardson. On one hand you never want to blame the victim. And there have been so many allegations against Richardson that you have to believe where there is smoke there is fire.
But at the same time if you know there is a vicious pit bull, you should know not to stick your hand in its cage. A simple Google search will reveal lots of details about Richardson's slimeball reputation. Why would models keep posing for someone with such a reputation? And why do brands keep associating themselves with someone with serious question marks.
When an athlete gets arrested for rape, brands drop him from endorsement deals because they don't want to be associated with that. Yet fashion brands keep paying Richardson lots of money to bring his style to their product. But my analogy doesn't hold up because Richardson has not been arrested because none of these models have ever pressed charges. So someone needs to press charges if there is, in fact, a crime going on. That's the only way to make sure these things don't happen.
I read the link "new rape allegations surfaced." It's sadly the story of someone who made some bad choices and now regrets them. It has no moment of rape in it. Richardson's behavior is not something I would endorse or engage in myself as a photographer, but at any given moment the model could have said "don't" or "no" or "stop." Neither Richardson or his assistant threatened the model with violence or retribution. Who can say what her motives or reasons were for touching Richardson's penis when asked to but the point is she was asked to, not forced to. Naiveté and common sense aren't mutually exclusive.
Richardson holds power over the models in that he is the one paying them and possibly making them famous. Because of this it could be considered sexual coercion.
If you read her account, she wasn't paid. This was purely voluntary on her part. We can speculate on what she thought she might get from it (career advancement perhaps) but there was no threat of withholding payment. The choice she makes after that in the hopes of becoming famous is just that: her choice.
Notice how he accuses people of attacking his work and not specific behaviors. Politicians aren't the only ones that know how to play with words. Having said that, most of these models should know who they're dealing with.
Because his work is his behaviors.
as if they should know he's a creep and it's their fault because they didn't back out because of that?
Challenging images???
PPPPPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. Hand IN hand. HAND AND HAND IS NOT A SAYING.
2. 98% of rapists never end up actually getting convicted and about .01% of rape accusations are false. Yet, we're still giving HIM the benefit of the doubt just because he's a photographer??
According to this 3 year study 2.1% of rape allegations were proven to be false (https://www.ncjrs.gov/app/abstractdb/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=243182), Not a big number by any means but certainly a lot higher than 0.01%
And according to this report (http://www.uky.edu/CRVAW/files/TopTen/07_Rape_Prosecution.pdf) 14-18% of reported rape cases get prosecuted which leads to an estimated 3-4% conviction rate of all estimated rap incidents.
Stats without references are generally inaccurate and made up on the spot.
Furthermore the system gives him the benefit of the doubt because the system is build around the premise of innocent until proven guilty. Personally I think he is without a doubt guilty but obviously his local prosecutor doesn't feel there is enough evidence to prosecute OR he believes that she/he needs to spend more time gathering evidence before going after Terry knowing how powerful he is.
Prove the model even met him. Prove she's not just another talking head.
I hate reading some of the comments here that are so derogatory towards women, and the ones that allude to the commenter not being able to even fathom someone like Terry Richardson to commit the acts he's been accused of. Throughout looking into the allegations on multiple occasions, I've come to believe that he does have a dark side, and that he has traumatized some people. And I don't think someone who does those things, regardless of how "artistic" and creative you think this person is, should be revered when they are causing pain and suffering to other people. Just because it's within the industry of art or fashion makes it no different, and I think people need to step up and start saying it's not okay, no matter who you are.
From the pictures I've seen of him, he owns one black shirt and one red, plaid button down. Am I the only one who sees this?
Look out folks, we have a sharp one here!
One question for those defending him: if a young female (18,19,20) was to have been offered an (unpaid or paid) internship with any company in the USA and the boss starts showing the young lady the job, then after 15 minutes whips his dick out and tells her to start blowing it, would this action be condoned?
Thank you!! This is exactly what I was thinking when I read the original article.
Based on most of the comments here, I think that would be A-OK to a lot of these people. They pine for the "good old days" where men could get away with this stuff without any risk to themselves. Unfortunately for the rest of us, there still isn't much risk of a rapist getting caught, tried, and jailed.
he never said: 'I never jizzed on her face', but goes on about his 'shocking' style...some heavy PR shiznit there...
If you want to shoot porn, just shoot porn. Stop trying to rebrand it. He is creepy, but "artists" dont see that. His images are still just average.
If its true , Then hes a pig with a camera . The girl probably wanted the attention before and after also or shes a helpless victim that he took advantage of . It happens all the time who knows what happens behind closed doors . The meaning you cant judge what you dont know