The head of publishing juggernaut Condé Nast has ordered the work of fashion photographer Terry Richardson to be “killed” by magazine editors, effective immediately.
In an email sent on Monday, executive vice president James Woolhouse said the company – which owns Vogue, GQ, Glamour, and Vanity Fair, among others – will no longer use the 52-year-old’s work:
I am writing to you on an important matter. 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.
Please could you confirm that this policy will be actioned in your market effective immediately. Thank you for your support in this matter.
The email did not detail a specific reason for the order, but the message comes after years of allegations of sexual impropriety against models on his photoshoot sets.
Model Gabriela Johansson, who speaks English as a second language, alleged that Richardson once disguised a form giving consent to the publication of topless photographs as a ‘sign-in’ form.
In 2010, model Jamie Peck wrote the photographer encouraged her to engage in a sex act with him during a shoot, an experience she described as “sort of like watching someone else do it, someone who couldn’t possibly be me because I would never touch a creepy photographer’s penis.”
In 2014, Peck asked “what does this say about the fashion industry as a whole that so many people have let him and other, sneakier people get away with this for so long?”
Richardson has long denied any accusations of impropriety on his shoots, claiming all participants in his admittedly provocative shots are aware of the nature of his work and consent to its publication.
Regardless, Condé Nast’s decision to actively call off any current and future collaboration with the photographer indicates a massive shift behind the scenes of a fashion powerhouse.
Richardson is yet to publicly respond to the move.
