Terry Richardson

About

Terry Richardson is an American photographer known for his sexually explicit work, appearing in Rolling Stone, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vice and more. Due to the content of his photography, as well as the accounts of his models, Richardson has been accused of sexual misconduct.

History

Terry Richardson was born on August 14th, 1962 in New York City. His parents divorced, and he moved with his mother to California--first to Hollywood, and later, Ojai.^[1]

Richardson's mother gave him his first camera in 1982. After moving to New York City, he began taking pictures of the party scene, before publishing his first piece for Vibe in 1994. He has since published work in Rolling Stone, GQ, Vanity Fair, Vogue and more.

In 2013, Richardson directed the music video for Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball. Cyrus later regreted doing the video with Richardson saying, "That’s something you can’t take away, swinging around naked on a wrecking ball lives forever. I’m never living that down. I will always be the naked girl on the wrecking ball."

Reputation

In a 2014 profile for New York Magazine,^[7] writer Benjamin Wallace wrote:

"Richardson is also famous for another reason: He has cultivated a reputation of being a professional debauchee, a proud pervert who has, outside his commercial work, produced a series of extremely explicit images--often including himself naked and erect--that many find pornographic and misogynistic, and which can make viewers distinctly uncomfortable. In recent years, a number of the models in those images have indicated that they, too, weren't altogether comfortable, filing lawsuits and, increasingly, speaking up in essays and interviews."

Allegations of Sexual Misconduct

Since 2001, Terry Richardson has been accused of sexual misconduct, with some claiming that he "coerced young female models into exploitative and compromising positions, and into pretending to perform sex acts on him."^[3]

The allegations have been damaging to Richard's career. According to The Guardian, James Woolhouse, the executive vice-president of Condé Nast, said, "Condé Nast would like to no longer work with the photographer Terry Richardson. Any shoots that have been commission[ed] or any shoots that have been completed but not yet published, should be killed and substituted with other material."

On January 2nd, 2018, The New York Daily News^[5] reported that the New York Police Department's Special Victims Squad was investigating Richardson for sexual assault. The Daily News says, "Ex-model Caron Bernstein stepped forward in the piece with claims Richardson invited her to collaborate on an edgy, topless photo shoot at his Manhattan studio in 2003 and ambushed her with a sex assault[…]Richardson exposed himself without warning, forced her to perform oral sex on him."

Criticism

A number of Richardson's high-profile celebrity models have expressed regret in working with the photographer, including Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Lena Dunham and Morrissey.

Personal Life

From 1996 to 1999, Richardson was married to Nikki Uberit. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Richardson reportedly asked for a divorce. He denies this by saying, "I know people say, ‘He’s a heartless cad; his wife got cancer and he took off with Shalom or some model’-which is completely not the truth. We’d basically separated and she was diagnosed, and I stayed with her and went back and forth, but I was trying to get clean, and I couldn’t get clean and stay in that house. I would just wake up and start drinking and taking pills. And she had been throwing me out forever anyway."^[5]

In 2014, Richardson began dating his long-time assistant Alexandra "Skinny" Bolotow, the mother of the couple's twin boys. They married in 2017.^[6]

Related Memes

#TerryRichardson4Topps

#TerryRichardson4Topps is a Twitter hashtag associated with hypothetical scenarios of raunchy photo shoots for Topps baseball trading cards if they were taken by Terry Richardson, a controversial fashion and portrait photographer best known for shooting Miley Cyrus’ music video for “Wrecking Ball” and photographs of model Kate Upton.

Rape Sloth

Rape Sloth is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of a sloth that appears to be whispering in a woman’s ear. The captions often contain creepy sexual innuendo, pick up lines and alarming threats that are meant to disturb the reader, in a similar vein to the Prepare Your Anus and You Gonna Get Raped image macros.

Cat Daddy

The Cat Daddy is a dance created in 2010 by the hip-hop group Rej3ctz, which involves moving one’s hands as if they are turning the wheels of a wheelchair. The Cat Daddy is often performed along with another dance known as the “Dougie.”

Wrecking Ball

“Wrecking Ball” is a 2013 pop song performed by singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus and the second single for her upcoming fourth studio album Bangerz. Similar to her first single from the year We Can’t Stop, the music video for the song spawned a slew of parodies upon its release in mid-September 2013.

Search interest

External References