Five years after allegations of sexual abuse emerged, no arrest has been made against the shamed and shunned photographer. Still, assertions of inappropriate behaviour towards models he photographed continue to surface, even now

Just as we thought that the fashion world has forgotten Terry Richardson (or preferred not to remember him), the disgraced American photographer is in the news again. And, once more, for the same allegations of sexually aggressive behaviour towards models. The persistent abuse that was sensationally exposed in 2014 eventually had him dropped by many magazines and brands that once favoured his hyper-sexualised photography. As it has been widely reported, last Tuesday, Mr Richardson was hit with a new lawsuit that accused the 58-year-old of sexually assaulting Spanish model Minerva Portillo. At the time of the alleged abuse in 2004, Ms Portillo was 22. It was her first photographic work with the lascivious-looking lensman. Two days after Ms Portillo’s filing, another lawsuit by another model, Johannesburg-born Caron Bernstein, whose attorneys claimed that she suffered “intentional infliction of emotional distress and gender-motivated violence”, as accounted by Yahoo News.

What happened to these two models needs no repeating here. Back in 2017, when news first emerged of Mr Richardson’s potentially criminal behaviour behind his prurient photographs, The Guardian reported that “lurid stories about Richardson’s behaviour have circulated since 2001”. But what is disturbing this time, as indicated in the lawsuits, was that both Ms Portillo and Ms Bernstein were photographed performing sex acts against their will, and the images were then exhibited at the photographer’s solo exhibition Terryworld and the accompanying book of the same name and another tome Kibosh. Ms Portillo did issue Mr Richardson a cease-and-desist letter in 2005, but it is not known if anything came out of that. Both women claimed that the experiences had been traumatic for them. Although Ms Portillo now works in her home country, she—as well as Ms Bernstein—appears to be suing her abuser under the Adult Survivors Act in the US, which allows survivors to take legal action against perpetrators, as well as institutions that take the side of the sexual victimiser. The window shut last Thursday.

The book in which images of models in compromising positions with the photographer were published

Representatives of Mr Richardson has not responded to press requests for comments. The photographer—who appears to have retreated from fashion photography—is not met with criminal charges yet, despite the earlier accusations that other models had made. He had denied that non-consensual acts took place between him and those models. USA Today, in 2017, quoted “a person familiar with the situation” who said that “Terry is disappointed to hear about this email especially because he has previously addressed these old stories. He is an artist who has been known for his sexually explicit work, so many of his professional interactions with subjects were sexual and explicit in nature but all of the subjects of his work participated consensually.” The more “explicit” (bordering on porn, if low-brow) his work, the more challenging to what’s acceptable it became, which was then happily seen as edgy. It is hard not to see that his clients were complicit in his rise to fame.

It is not clear if models who attended his shoots were aware of the artistic direction he would take. But from his fashion work alone, it is obvious that Mr Richardson, who was often known as “Uncle Terry” to many of his female subjects, did not produce pretty or staid images. Suggestion of sex, if not the very act, was frequently evident in his work. On the website Goodreads, Terryworld—the photo book that purportedly featured Minerva Portillo and Caron Bernstein—enjoys this introduction: “Porn stars, supermodels, transsexuals, hillbillies, friends, pets, and celebrities do for photographer Terry Richardson what they do for no other because in his world, taboos are null and void, and fashion finds sex a perfect fit.” Fashion brands bought into his nothing’s-unacceptable alacrity, until they did not, or when the “fit” was no longer snug. In a 2014 New York Magazine cover story—titled “Is Terry Richardson an Artist or a Predator?”, the photographer said, “I don’t have any regrets about the work at all… I’m okay with myself about everything, and that to me is the most important thing.” Photography or perversion—the line between is still not clear.

Illustrations: Just So