Condé Nast Dropping Photographer Terry Richardson Comes 7 Years Too Late

Ding, dong. The creep is gone. Fashion's sleaziest photographer Terry Richardson has been booted from Conde Nast in the wake of sweeping sexual harrassment allegations coming out against Harvey Weinstein and men from all industries, including fashion. Congrats, you can read the pages of publications like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and others without having to see his photographs anymore.

In an email leaked to The Daily Telegraph, James Woolhouse, the company's executive vice president and chief operating officer, told all "country presidents" to cease working with Richardson immediately. And if they happened to be working on projects with him or had projects that were not yet published, those should be "killed or substituted with other material." Quite the email to send out at 8:14 AM on a Monday morning, right?

The 52-year-old photographer has had a notable career in fashion photography and worked with everyone from Beyonce and Lady Gaga to Miley Cyrus, but his work has also come with long-running whispers of sexual abuse and harassment.

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It was seven years ago, in 2010, that Richardson came under fire for allegations of sexually harassing models. In a post on The Fashion Law, model Jamie Peck talked about her experience working with fashion's acclaimed photographer. She details a shoot that happened at the end of her freshman year of college where Richardson (who likes to be called Uncle Terry because that's not creepy at all) asked to use her tampon to make tea, proceeded to get naked, and then had Peck give him a hand job.

Allegations of sexual harassment surfaced again in 2013 and, once again, in 2014. A 2013 New York Post expose by Maureen Callahan called him "fashion's favorite pervert" and noted Richardson's notoriety for "years-long, rampant reports of sexually exploiting and abusing his models." She detailed Peck's experience as well as model Rie Rasmussen, who was one of first industry figures to publicly accuse Richardson of sexually harassing young girls.

As allegations continued to surface, only a handful of brands had the courage to drop him from their roster. In the past year alone, according to The Fashion Law, "he has shot ad campaigns for Valentino and Bulgari, and editorials for Interview, Vogue Paris, Vogue China, CR Fashion Book, WSJ Magazine, W Magazine, Document, Vanity Fair France, various intentional editions of GQ, and Purple, amongst others, per models.com."

Sure, it's laudable that Conde Nast has dropped him as a client, but dropping the Harvey Weinstein of the fashion industry because of a wave of pressure isn't cause for celebration--it's a decision that comes seven years too late.