In 2003, former model Caron Bernstein arrived at the Lower East Side studio of famed fashion photographer Terry Richardson.
For Bernstein, this shoot would signal a new phase of her career. As a high-fashion model who had already graced the pages of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, Bernstein wanted to use this opportunity to promote her music career.
But when Bernstein made it onto set, she says she became a victim of sexual assault.
In an interview with New York Daily News, Bernstein says Richardson set about positioning her in a chair, taking a few photos – and, when the crew had left the room – exposing his penis, forcing himself into her mouth.
“It was like literally being shot with a stun gun. My brain just went on pause,” Bernstein, now 47, told the publication. “I wasn’t doing anything. I wasn’t performing as a model.”
Bernstein told the New York Daily News she can not remember if the alleged attack took seconds or minutes.
“I was like a deer in the headlights,” she said. “I wasn’t drugged, I wasn’t handcuffed. Thank God that never happened. But in a weird way, that would have made it easier to forgive myself for not fighting him off.”
She said Richardson then proceeded to ejaculate on her chest, taking more photos of her body. When reviewing more than 30 stills from the shoot, The New York Daily News confirmed the images showed Bernstein in different positions with semen on her breasts.
In a statement to the news outlet, Richardson’s lawyer Brad D. Rose has denied the claims.
“Ms. Bernstein knowingly and willingly posed for these photographs and at all times prior to and during the shoot, any contact she had with Mr. Richardson was consensual,” he said.
Bernstein is not the first woman to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct regarding Terry Richardson.
In 2007, Coco Rocha said she wouldn’t shoot with him again because she “didn’t feel comfortable”. In 2008, Jezebel received an email from a stylist named Anna who once shot with the photographer and claims when she was posing on the floor, she “felt a dick pressing into the side of [her] face”.
In 2010, model Rie Rasmussen alleged to Page Six that Richardson "takes girls who are young, manipulates them to take their clothes off and takes pictures of them they will be ashamed of. They are too afraid to say no because their agency booked them on the job and are too young to stand up for themselves".
In 2014, model Charlotte Waters went public with her own alleged experiences with Richardson, telling Vocativ she was just 19 when she first modelled for the photographer. Within an hour of the model arriving on set, Waters alleges he had "licked her arse" and demanded she "squeeze his balls".
In the wake of the Weinstein scandal, publishing giant Condé Nast made an executive call to cut all working ties with the photographer, banning him from contributing to their various publications including Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, and W.
Listen: Dustin Hoffman's excuse for the allegations against him was atrocious. Luckily, John Oliver called him out on it.
In a leaked email obtained by The Telegraph, reportedly sent by Condé Nast COO James Woolhouse to management, Woolhouse wrote all unpublished work by Richardson should be “killed or substituted”.
"I am writing to you on an important matter. Condé Nast would like to no longer work with the photographer Terry Richardson," the email reportedly read.
"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."
Top Comments
I have always wondered why women agree to shoot for him. Some of the pics are so creepy. I remember the time he shot the Glee cast and it was just so in poor taste, like so far removed from what the show was actually about.
There’s a certain point where headlines become so explicit that the lines are blurred to what is click bait, or what is news. Particular when it is that old favourite “allegedly”! Graphic details about who did what to who are verging on creating a voyeuristic sexual news content. Of course the accuser must feel shocking but it is all without the structure of democratic Law. Countries without this structure still use barbaric death such as stoning, whipping and street shaming. Crude news headlines with these added graphic details provide no use at this point. The news media’s role is to inform of the event. Not to add the word ‘penis’ or ‘breast’ or sexual positions when ‘allegedly inappropriately touched’ will do.