7 Famous Figures Photographed By Terry Richardson

Prolific fashion photographer Terry Richardson, whose work has appeared on the pages of most major magazines, is reportedly banned from working with brands owned by Condé Nast. The announcement was made this week in a company-wide email that directed any of its magazines currently working with the controversial photographer to kill the projects or use a substitute.

The email, which was obtained by the Daily Telegraph, was sent by ‎Condé Nast’s Executive Vice President James Woolhouse.

“I am writing to you on an important matter. Condé Nast would like to no longer work with the photographer Terry Richardson,” Woolhouse said. “Any shoots that have been [commissioned] or any shoots that have been completed but not yet published, should be killed and substituted with other material.”

In spite of years of allegations of sexual harassment and assault by Richardson, the photographer has been tied to some of the most important cultural figures of the last two decades — both in- and outside of the world of fashion. Seven of those names include:

Former U.S. President Barack Obama

Kate Moss

Rapper Kanye West

Miley Cyrus

Actress Lena Dunham

Lady Gaga

Beyoncé

Few of Richardson’s subjects — including some of the aforementioned names — have specifically spoken out about the allegations against him, which were made by a number of women with whom he’s worked. And Richardson has long denied the claims of sexual misconduct, even in the face of a 2013 Change.org petition requesting a ban on his work.

“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,” Richardson wrote in a 2014 blog post on the Huffington Post. “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.”

It is not immediately clear what spurred Condé Nast’s decision to only now bar the photographer from working with its magazine, which include Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ. But the decision comes on the heels of allegations of sexual harassment and assault made against former studio executive Harvey Weinstein in two explosive exposées, which seemingly opened the floodgates on long-overlooked sexual misconduct across industries.