Who is Terry Richardson? This famous photographer is a favorite of many Western celebrities. He has become an iconic figure largely due to his overly frank style of work - his overly sexualized photographs shock the public. Moreover, some models even accused him of sexual violence and inappropriate behavior. Terry Richardson has worked with hundreds of celebrities, including Kate Moss, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Lady Gaga.

Facts from life

Born in New York in 1965, Richardson spent much of his youth in Paris, as his father was a photographer for French Vogue. Upon returning to America in 1969, Terry's parents divorced after his father had an affair with 17-year-old model, now actress Anjelica Huston.

Tired of city life, his mother Norma decided to move to Woodstock, but she soon grew tired of the quiet lifestyle, and after a short stay in London, the family moved to California in 1974.

Career

Richardson was given his first camera by his mother, actress Norma Kessler, in 1982. Now Terry is over fifty, he participates in advertising campaigns for such famous brands as Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, Yves Saint Laurent and many others. However, his path to fame was quite long. In 1994, his photographs appeared in Vibe magazine (New York), and he was shown at Paris International Fashion Week that same year.

In 1995, he participated in an advertising campaign for fashion designer Katherine Hamnett, whose collection featured obscenely short skirts. Terry Richardson then worked in London (England) for The Face, Arena and other magazines. In 2012, the controversial photographer presented his first solo exhibition at a gallery in Los Angeles. In 2013, he photographed the Kardashian sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe for the launch of their LIPSY collection.

Harassment allegations

Since 2010, the photographer has literally been bombarded with numerous complaints about his inappropriate sexual behavior, coercion and violence. Terry Richardson has always denied any wrongdoing and has never been found guilty of any wrongdoing. Some models felt comfortable enough until he himself suddenly stripped naked. Despite everything, Terry Richardson continued to shoot, filling the covers of popular magazines.

In 2014, 6 more women publicly accused him of inappropriate behavior. This time the effect was more noticeable. Such publications as American Vogue, New-York Times, W-Magazine and Target broke ties with the fashion photographer. Then one of Richardson's longtime employers, shoe brand Aldo, cuts ties with him, followed by fashion house Roberto Cavalli.

Attentive artist or lustful predator?

Whatever reputation Terry Richardson enjoys, his photographs are published in the best magazines, many celebrities have posed for him - from Barack Obama to Justin Bieber. Madonna, Kate Moss, Miley Cyrus, Chloë Sevigny, Mila Kunis, the Olsen sisters, Beyoncé, Emily Ratejkauski, Lady Gaga posed for him. His work has been featured in top glamor magazines and he has been hired by YSL, Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, Diesel, H&M, Mango, Supreme, Aldo, Jimmy Choo, Sisley and Gucci.

Celebrities want to work with him and use his services, despite his scandalous reputation. It's undeniable that many top fashion publications and designers are aware of the accusations they are ignoring Terry Richardson. Works of the famous provocateur and his style are commercially successful, and this is something to be reckoned with.

The last few years of his career were marred by allegations of sexual harassment. In 2010, he clashed at Paris Fashion Week with Danish model Rie Rasmussen, who accused Richardson of abusing his power in the fashion industry and harassing young women. In 2005, Romanian model Gabriela Johansson sued for breach of contract, fraud and invasion of privacy.

Fashion photographer status

Despite calls from fashion brands to boycott Richardson, he is still reaping the fruits of his labors. In 2015 alone, he worked with Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Italian and French editions of Vogue and GQ. He secured lucrative contracts with Valentino and Carolina Herrera. Richardson's in-demand status among the biggest brands and celebrities of our time has made him one of the most revered photographers of his generation. He has a very impressive professional portfolio. Terry Richardson is not just a fashion photographer, he is a bold provocateur who tried to erase the boundaries between fashion and eroticism.

Terry Richardson is a popular American photographer, the son of the famous fashion photographer Bob Richardson. As a child he lived in Paris, New York, London and Los Angeles. Over the years, Terry has built an impeccable reputation for himself and is now a sought-after top photographer. His photographs show the most famous top models, pop stars, musicians and movie stars.

Photographer Terry Richardson: his work

Richardson, with his distinctive appearance: mustache, sideburns, and vintage glasses, is an important figure in the world of fashion and show business. Among the many stars who have worked with him are Lady Gaga, Georgia May Jagger, Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss, Lydia Hearst, Kate Upton, Rihanna, Will Ferrell, Woody Allen, Jared Leto and many others, the list goes on and on.

Since the beginning of his career, he has maintained simple aesthetic principles, often using plain white backgrounds and minimal photography props. Possessing incredible charisma, Terry Richardson has become a true legend and celebrity in the field of show business.

Biography facts

Terry Richardson was born on August 14, 1965 in New York City to photographer Bob Richardson and stylist Annie Lomax. As a child, he moved to Paris with his parents, who divorced soon after. In 1971, he and his mother moved to America.

Terry spent his youth in Hollywood and Los Angeles, where he attended high school. In the early 1990s, Terry Richardson played in several punk bands, and at the age of eighteen he began to take up photography. This harmless hobby gradually grew into a real passion. Despite his shyness, the talented teenager felt that he could show his creativity through his photographs. In 2012, Terry Richardson presented his first exhibition to the public in Los Angeles, California.

Carier start

After some time, his career in this field took off when he moved to New York and convinced Vibe magazine to shoot a series of photographs with his father. Although unsuccessful, the photographs taken by Terry Richardson marked the beginning of a monumental career.

Gradually, he began to collaborate with many manufacturing companies for the largest fashion brands, as well as for the most famous designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Jimmy Choo and Tom Ford; with the most sought-after models and celebrities, including Lindsey Wixson, Crystal Renn, James Franco, Chloë Sevigny, Lara Stone. And even US President Barack Obama posed in front of his lens.

From a simple assistant to a professional

Terry Richardson, whose photographs appear on the covers of popular fashion publications, began his professional career as a simple assistant who gradually learned to photograph his surroundings, and later people. He ended up working with some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood. These included Leonardo DiCaprio, Lindsay Lohan, Mickey Rourke and others. Richardson has also done a lot of work for famous brands such as Hugo Boss, Gucci and Dolce and Gabbana.

Terry Richardson: scandalous photo

His photographs often create quite a stir because some consider them provocatively sexual and even pornographic. Richardson also sometimes acts as a model himself and participates in the filming of various sex scenes with both women and men.

Terry Richardson himself, whose photographs are often provocative and provocative, says that these photos allow him to explore his sexuality, in addition, he is clearly not shy about showing his body in the most revealing positions.

In 2010, he was accused of sexual exploitation. Richardson publicly responded to these allegations, stating that they were completely false and baseless. Richardson's photographs, and more specifically his indecent photographs, have always been the subject of quite a bit of controversy throughout much of his career.

People have been gossiping about the fact that Terry Richardson is a predator who preys on assistants and models for many years. Last year, a public petition was even launched in the United States about his unacceptable behavior, and American Vogue even stopped working with the photographer for some time. In all this turmoil, the interesting thing is that despite all his scandalousness, Terry does not lose popularity and contracts with fashion houses and magazines. Today Richardson celebrates, and we remember the chronology of his sex scandals.

2004:

The Observer published a scandalous article involving Terry's assistant and an unknown model. According to the assistant, during one of the shootings he caught the photographer in intimate intimacy with the beauty who was being photographed. Once spotted, Richardson noted with a laugh, “This is Sesame Street.”

2009:

Model Senya Cech was one of those who spoke openly about sex with Terry in a documentary about the downside of being a model. The Guardian wrote about this film, which included a piquant dialogue between a journalist and a model, in which the model shares details of an intimate relationship with Richardson.

2010:

In 2010, model Ree Rasmussen became Terry Richardson's alleged victim. The model was outraged that the photographer combined her photographs with photographs of naked young girls. At a social event in Paris, Rasmussen told Richardson to his face that his work “degrades women.” Ree complained that he took advantage of the girls' naivety and took photos that they would be ashamed of in the future. According to eyewitnesses, Richardson immediately left the event.

2010:

Shortly after, former model Jamie Peck wrote about an experience she had with Terri Richardson when she was 19 in an essay for The Gloss. Peck, who did two shoots with Richardson, mentions that he asked to be called only “Uncle Terry” and also offered to make tea from a tampon.

“Before I could say 'hey, hey, hey!', he was standing there, wearing only his tattoos, swinging the biggest manhood I'd ever seen,” Jamie writes in her essay.

2010:

If until this moment fairly unknown models had opposed Terry, then in 2010 one of the most famous models, Coco Rocha, caused a scandal with him. Despite the fact that the model did not report sexual harassment, in her interview with Fashion magazine she said that she would never work with the photographer again. They had one shoot together, after which Rocha stated that she was so uncomfortable that she would not repeat it again. Here is one of the pictures they took.

2014:

Sarah Ziff and Alice Shoemaker, talking about the formation of the modeling alliance on HuffPost, immediately mentioned Richardson. Ziff, who worked with him once, like Coco Rocha, said she would no longer work with the photographer and understands why young models have problems with him. “This goes beyond bare torso, these are serious allegations. I worked with him and will not do so again based on my own experience,” Sarah said then.

2014:

British model Emma Appleton uploaded a screenshot of a message sent to her by someone purportedly named Terry Richardson. The text of the message contained a proposal for sexual intercourse. A day later, the model deleted the screenshot from her Twitter. Later it turned out that it was a fake, and the model wanted to become famous in this way. However, a spokesman for American Vogue said: “We have no plans to work with him in the future.” The magazine later withdrew its decision.

Interestingly, not a single similar complaint was received from famous people, whom Terry photographed dozens of during his long career. The question arises, are all these stories true? But in any case, it will remain either on the conscience of Richardson or on the conscience of those who spread the rumors.

In the world of modern gloss, as well as classical ones, we are accustomed to seeing eroticism covered in luxury or staged majestic shots. A lot of painstaking work is hidden behind beautiful pictures; gold and breathtaking images constantly flash from story to story. The reader of the gloss, in turn, has already prepared a number of admiring epithets, and has already tried on the clothes seen on the photoshopped divas several times with the help of his rich imagination. This is, of course, wonderful - photographers have learned to make beauty that is expensive and marketable, and many have retained elements of art in their work. Ines van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, for example, continue to make their art, which has been selling decently for a long time, no matter how cynical it may sound, but it’s good when you create what you want, and it brings income. But no matter what photographers we consider, everyone uses a “veil of superiority” that highlights what is main in his vision. Even the cycle of “everyday” works by the brilliant Annie Leibovitz has a number of accents and intentions of the artist, embedded in light production elements. But there is another type of photographer in the world, rebel photographers and hooligans who openly demonstrate the flow of real and one hundred percent individual human emotions inherent in a separate character and a separate story.

Serious weirdo Terry Richardson

Terry Richardson is deified, but he is not taken seriously, and many even manage to hate him, just as model Jamie Peck once accused the provocateur Richardson of sexual harassment. But really, the whole essence of such ugly greatness in the fashion industry is dirty and scandalous photographs that gossips, yellow press and PR agents love so much? Of course, you can’t get far on just dirty underwear, especially to the status of a fashion photographer, whose work is also replete with the pages of the titans of fashion gloss. Of course, this also has to do with Richardson's time-consuming work. He qualitatively demonstrates his acquired skills in serious projects in which famous designers, models and stylists are involved. And here you understand that Terry Richardson is a commercially serious fashion photographer, and the conclusion is that this eccentric, showing off his genitals and the extravagant behavior of his famous friends, is a sensible showman who knows where he can relax, where he can be a free artist, and where you should offer your art from its advantageous side.

Emma Stern Nielsen photographed by Terry Richardson for Harper's Bazaar, April 2015

The nature of Richardson's work

Terry Richardson has turned a new page in the fashion and photography industry. If you dig deeper, it’s difficult to call his work simply “provocative.” He learned to make sure that in the resulting picture we see not riotous people showing off their body parts, and not homosexuals promoting their lifestyle, but simply people, their fire and indifference to the opinions of others. Richardson seems to play with his models and loved ones in the frame and he achieves a brilliant thing that not everyone can achieve - to draw out genuine emotions and help a person to be at least a little crazy, abnormal and free. Yes, after thinking a little, we see not the buttocks and other intimate places, but energy that charges. Terry Richardson is a real phenomenon in the fashion world, his work has made global changes in culture, and I want to study this powerful influence. By the way, such a study will perhaps be easier with the release in October 2015 of a book in two volumes, “Portraits” and “Fashion,” about the photographer’s 20-year career.

Marc Jacobs photographed by Terry Richardson for Harper's Bazaar, January 2009

An intimate part of the creative process

In Richardson, all the subjects, be they men dressed in women's clothing, women in Haute Couture dresses, young men in dandy style or several completely naked people, were able to expose their essence in the photo. Contact with each of them is similar to intimate intimacy, because only in the closest relationships do you reveal your essence to a person. This artist managed to figuratively be in bed with each of his models. What's hidden in a photographer's studio? You can’t help but remember Richardson’s rather dirty and extravagant photo past, where debauchery prevailed to a greater extent, which was even frightening.

In the footsteps of a genius

Today, in the age of developed information technologies, everyone is trying to take the most proven and successful: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Johnny Depp, Tyra Banks, Angelina Jolie, Tyson Beckford - all of them served as sources of inspiration for many young talents. And in the world of photography, many began to understand what the essence of success is today. Thus, the theme of parties and recklessness resulted in a mix of glamorous production chic in the new photo shoot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott “Back in the Lime Light” for W Magazine. This sells, especially today, in times of protection of rights, freedom of action and “naturalness”.

Brand Terry Richardson

WHATEVER trends appear, Terry Richardson remains true to his style - his signature shooting, which brings out the most genuine emotions, with a flash against a white wall, has become a real brand that is copied and loved. Today, almost every representative of stellar Olympus probably wanted to go “through Richardson’s bed,” as if this were some kind of ritual of enlightenment. It is quite possible to assume that celebrities often have such a desire not for the sake of PR, but to receive a storm of emotions from this cute eccentric and exchange experiences with a photographer who was able to create his own formula for success, allowing him to preserve his essence and not get lost behind external standards.

Terry Richardson never evoked a clear reaction from the public, both as a photographer and as a person. He can be called anyone: a genius and a banal vulgar, a subtle esthete and a preoccupied hooligan. For each viewer, his work evokes his own emotions, depending on his readiness to perceive the world without bias. Such a controversial personality as Terry Richardson does not fit into the framework of judgment, and the most objective critics have always noted that sometimes Terry wants to be torn to pieces, and sometimes it becomes awkward in front of him for his unfriendly essays. One thing is one hundred percent clear: Terry Richardson- one of the most interesting photographers of our time, otherwise they wouldn’t talk about him so much.

How many unsuccessful attempts have been made by hundreds of ambitious photographers seeking to gain fame through provocation, however, this path turned out to be not so wide. With Richardson, it’s the other way around: fame itself follows him, no matter what jungle it takes him. It all started with his celebrity parents Bob Richardson and Annie Lokmas, free and modern creative people who are not indifferent to photography. Terry Richardson grew up in Los Angeles, and Hollywood was not a big influence in shaping him as a person. At the age of nine, Terry suffered a severe blow associated with a car accident in which his mother was involved. Since then she has been bedridden. This event left a strong imprint on the teenage psyche, and Terry Richardson subsequently visited a psychiatrist several times.

Like many young people in the mid-80s Terry Richardson established himself in informal companies. For some time he became seriously interested in music, being a member of one of the underground rock bands. However, knowing a lot about photography and seeing its possibilities, I still decided to look for myself in this field. I must say that Terry Richardson was at the right time and in the right place. His aspirations quickly found their groove, and after a few years he was busy photographing Hollywood stars from the most unusual angles, causing a resonance necessary both for the stars themselves and for himself. Sisley, Gucci, iD, Dolce & Gabbana and many other brands lined up in front of his lens. Scandalous PR was already at that time one of the most effective ways to attract attention, and, therefore, to take up more space on the pages of the media and glossy magazines.

Shooting style and handwriting Terry Richardson difficult to classify. This is such a different photographer that even today it is difficult to predict him. To judge him as a photographer, it is necessary to review hundreds of his works. A significant portion of Richardson's photographs are openly pornographic. And, if we consider only this side of Terry, then it would be too little for such loud conversations about him. The main resonance is caused by his erotic works, which reflect a completely different Richardson: observant and serious, subtle and delicate, truthful and dramatic. But that's not all Terry. Among his works there are stills that are striking in their depth. These are not just beautiful photographs with well-placed light, but entire erotic stories, mysterious images, as if seen from afar, and captured with long-range optics. Sometimes it is similar to what we see in everyday life and exclaim when something unusual and intimate happens near us. One gets the impression that Terry Richardson always carries a cocked camera around his neck, and at every such opportunity he instantly takes a photo. Most photographers have only a few such unexpected shots, but Terry has hundreds. How he manages to get them in such quantities is a real mystery. Although there are rumors that Terry Richardson often hunts his models right on the street, takes them to a hotel room, where he persuades them to have sex with each other, and takes the camera. If he sees that he made a mistake in his choice, he unceremoniously leaves under a banal pretext and never returns - that’s what Terry is all about.

Being a highly paid, world-famous photographer, Richardson does not shy away from serious work on the development of his own porn site, where he himself loves to be a model. Without the slightest hesitation, he exposes his genitals, films same-sex relationships and scenes of outright debauchery. The nature of his photographic work is bisexual. Some people are disgusted by this, others are sympathetic, but today a certain swagger and debunking of glamorous images has become, as they say, a classic of the genre. May be Terry Richardson knows more about this...