quotables

What Would Terry Richardson Describe As ‘A Happy Accident’?

Terry Richardson.
Terry Richardson. Photo: Mark Von Holden/Getty Images

Terry Richardson gave his first lengthy interview in over two years to the Times. (He stopped talking to the press around the time a number of models made “hurtful” allegations of inappropriate behavior on his part.) He gamely discussed some of the images that helped cement his status as a photographer of “glossed-up 1970s porn chic,” describing a campaign he shot in the mid-nineties for British designer Katherine Hamnett: “[W]hen I got the contact sheets back there was this one image, two frames … There was a shot of a girl, with her legs open, she had white panties.” To his delight, the model’s pubic hair was also showing. “[W]hen I was shooting her, I didn’t see that … It’s like a happy accident.”

What Is Richardson’s ‘Happy Accident’?