Terry Richardson Makes A Mysterious Comeback In W Mag

by Rika Nurrahmah | 5:48 pm, June 21st, 2010

Photographer Terry Richardson is one of fashion’s most provocative players and it’s no wonder why the constant controversies surrounding him make the 44-year-old no stranger to our newsfeed. This time, he returns to W magazine after his rumored 14-year ban from the publication with a surprisingly tasteful 17-shot editorial for the July 2010 issue — which just so happens to be the premiere issue for new editor-in-chief Stefano Tonchi.

The spread, now featured under the magazine website’s fashion page, strays far from the sexually explicit and suggestive style of Richardson. Instead, readers will witness a flock of models sashaying Manhattan in some of fall’s “sophisticated cool” looks from Miu Miu to Givenchy -– an appropriate direction for a notably sophisticated magazine.

After allegations of disturbing shoot antics and a more recent, controversial “spread” featuring the photographer smiling through the “rugs” of a female model, this is certainly a great move to clear some bad air from Uncle Terry. The editorial is surprisingly tame for the outlier, so one may wonder whether an agreement on the creative direction of the shoot was made between Tonchi and Richardson for the sake of W’s image. On top of that, Tonchi booking Richardson after his 14-year exile signals an obvious PR move on W’s behalf. So with the amount of press the publication has gotten lately, this is undeniably the cherry on top of that pie.

A former staffer of W made a claim to Jezebel that Richardson last photographs for the publication dates back to the November 1996 issue, when he shot model Esther de Jong for a Mexico City-short story. The apparent ban stemmed from Freedman taking offense to a Richardson photo of a model with her head in an oven, but a comment from Freedman has yet to confirm the statement.

Of all the shots from this spread, Karolina Kurkova in un-buttoned Hermes is the closest we’ll get to the Terry we know, but it’s worth mentioning that when high-profile institutions like W continue to employ and therefore endorse Richardson, the chances of him actually cleaning up his act are slim to none.

[images via W]