Terry Richardson

America and censorship is like a Vodka Sprite. The sweet taste of the Sprite masks the in your face excessiveness of a powerful, drunk inducing Vodka. America likes to get you drunk on their ways till you forget that you actually use to swear like a pirate among friends way more than noticing the f word being bleeped from your favorite block buster. Without the Sprite, it's a whole different ball game. As foreigners, we are not use to so much Sprite.

I have a friend staying over from Australia who told me she was delighted to find the old mid nineties alien exploitation movie Species on TV while trying to unwind from tourist adventures. She remembers how her high school male classmates were so excited about the topless part in Species and was looking forward to being sentimental of those days while finally seeing the much talked about scene, until she realized, they deleted it out!

In Terry Richardson's work, no boobies will be deleted out. In fact, the more boobies, the better. I'd like to follow with, since my abrupt noticing of censorship that seems to slyly creep into American media, that I find Richardson's work "refreshing" or "provocative", but they are just words not nearly awkward or cool enough to use in this case.

Born in New York City, raised in Hollywood, Terry Richardson started taking photos in high school. His work, so highly acclaimed, includes Gucci, Costume National, Mui Mui among other high end fashion campaigns, is also in British and French Vogue etc. Having impressed the fashion set, actors, musicians and celebrity It girls alike (not to mention scoring the NYC It girl- Jen Brill, as his girfriend) are ready to take off clothes, drink cows milk at any given moment to be photographed with a shoot and point camera by Richardson.

So let's face it, Sprite eventually goes flat and runs out way faster than Vodka. But I feel Richardson's work has left the Sprite out and downed more than one bottle of Vodka. Give me real America and the real excess any day of the week. That's what I came here for. Any less than this, and I feel cheated.