At a time when more and more fashion brands are distancing themselves from photographer Terry Richardson, Rita Ora has gone and done a shoot with him. The 48-year-old photographer, famed for washed-out style shoots of people in various states of undress, has fallen from grace after several models have come forward to tell their stories of alleged abuse at his hands. Details include him allegedly masturbating on to a model’s face and reportedly asking another if he could make tea from her used tampon.
He denies all of these allegations, and no charges have been brought against him. And the last scandal – where a British model alleged he’d told her he could get her into Vogue if she slept with him – was later proved to be a hoax. However, there’s enough bad feeling around him – the allegations have been coming in for the past ten years – that people, designers and publications have begun to publically speak out against him – Vogue, W, Target, H&M and The Wall Street Journal have all said they have no plans to work with him in the future.
The same can’t be said of Rita Ora, who, posed for Terry’s blog (and not an official photo-shoot), appearing topless, sucking on her middle finger, leaning backwards over an exercise ball, grabbing her crotch and posing in a see-through bra and Terry’s plaid shirt. Now, there’s nothing wrong with these poses, we’re all for Rita doing whatever she wants with her body. But it does seem strange timing to do a shoot with a man who has so many mounting allegations against him. She could be photographed with all her clothes on, hands by her sides and smiling, like a CBBC presenter, but it'd still be tasteless, because it's Terry Richardson.
Still, before we jump to have a pop at Rita, perhaps we should remember she's not alone to have worked with Terry – she's (sadly) following a massive trend. Everyone's worked with him – he shot the video for Beyoncé’s XO, the video for Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball and has done various shoots with the likes of Sky Ferreira, Kimye, Jared Leto, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber, Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan, Lana Del Rey, Dakota and Elle Fanning, Miranda Kerr, Cara Delevingne, US president Barack Obama… The list is depressingly long.
Yet the #NoMoreTerry boycott rages on – activists mass-emailing companies and people who have worked with him, demanding they rescind their support for him. We wonder if these photos of Rita – which, after all the allegations, have a sheen of gross all over them – will spur more people into refusing to work with him.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Pictures: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.