“Four years ago,” Richardson wrote in the letter which appeared online a couple weeks ago, “I chose to primarily ignore a cycle of Internet gossip and false accusations against me…When these allegations resurfaced over the past few months, they seemed especially vicious and distorted, moving outside the realm of critical dialogue and becoming nothing more than an emotionally-charged witch hunt.”
“He purports to want to correct the rumors,” responds Peck, “then goes off on a grandiose tangent situating himself as heir to the artistic legacy of Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe. Like so many before him, he uses ‘I’m an artist!’ as a blank check to do as he likes, missing the point by about a mile. It’s not his art that’s being attacked, but how he goes about making it. It’s just as possible to sexually harass people while making still lifes, snow tires, or office furniture as it is making ‘challenging artporn’ or whatever he calls his work. I won’t get into how deeply unchallenging to the status quo I find his images, because like I said, it’s irrelevant.”
Read Peck’s entire argument at The Observer: Photographer Terry Richardson’s Pervy Behavior and Phony Defense
Previously:
- Terry Richardson Finally Speaks Out About Allegations of Sexual Misconduct, Calling Them ‘Lies’
- Stylist Leslie Lessin Reportedly Identified as Terry Richardson’s Perv-Enabling Assistant
- The Anonymous Reddit Model Has Come Forward with Terry Richardson Allegations
- How Can We Get Big Brands to Stop Working With Terry Richardson? [Updated]
- Terry Richardson’s Continued Relevance is Maybe Even More Disturbing than Terry Richardson Himself
- Hey, Everyone: Stop Letting Terry Richardson Take Your Picture!
