This scandal just keeps getting more brutal. It all began when a former nude model named Jamie Peck wrote a firsthand account of her horrifying experience modeling for Terry Richardson, which quickly went viral on reddit.

The controversial photographer responded by penning an open letter in the Huffington Post to address the numerous allegations against him. Basically, he argued that it's okay for him to do whatever he wants because it's all for "art". Here's an excerpt from the letter:
Like Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, and so many others before me, sexual imagery has always been a part of my photography... I collaborated with consenting adult women who were fully aware of the nature of the work, and as is typical with any project, everyone signed releases. I have never used an offer of work or a threat of rebuke to coerce someone into something that they did not want to do. I give everyone that I work with enough respect to view them as having ownership of their free will and making their decisions accordingly, and as such, it has been difficult to see myself as a target of revisionist history.
Peck has since responded to Richardson's letter, pointing out that it's not about attacking his art "but how he goes about making it." From Jezebel:
"When you sign up for a nude shoot, the 'nature of the work' is generally just that: a nude shoot," writes Peck. The "nature of the work" isn't for the photographer "to whip out his condom-less dick and see how far he could push [the models]."

If he really wants to make sure his models are "aware of the nature of the work," why not sit down with them beforehand and talk about what they will and won't do, as is standard in the American porn industry? Why not put out an ad specifically looking for women who are comfortable getting facials on camera? Lord knows there are plenty of them! Why not have models sign releases after the shoot, not before as is his wont? Why not hold himself to a standard of enthusiastic consent, and not just the absence of a firm no? Why not do everything a man in his position can do to make sure girls aren't coming away from his studio with symptoms of PTSD?

"The bare minimum of consent required to stay out of jail is not an appropriate yardstick by which to deem one's actions ethical,"
So what do you think? Is Richardson really an eccentric artist, or just a major creep that needs to get his photographer license revoked?