This document summarizes and analyzes images from two photographers, Terry Richardson and Steven Miesel. For Richardson's work, it discusses themes of objectifying and sexualizing women for male pleasure, and how Richardson sometimes includes himself to argue he also objectifies men. It notes some criticize Richardson as a sexual predator. For Miesel's work, it analyzes images depicting torture and the normalization of such imagery in high fashion, and how this poses torture and cruelty to viewers as justified for national security or power. The conclusion finds Miesel's social commentary more thought-provoking than Richardson's seemingly self-serving images.

1. Project 1 | Individual Presentation
Research Methods | Analysis of the two images
Teo Jia En | 12565 | FM4A | CCS | Level 1 Sem 2

2. Who’s Pleasure?

3. Content
• Lucinda’s Pleasure | Research
Process
• Not Just His Pleasure | Terry
Richardson
• Consumer’s Pleasure| Steven Miesel
• My Pleasure | Conclusion
Image from Djheights.com

4. Lucinda’s Pleasure | Research Process
• Contextualization
• Read recommended text
• Background of photographers
• News articles about photographer
• Reviews about photographers work
• Supporting information about subject
and theme of photographer’s work.
Image from Warwick.uk

5. Not Just His Pleasure | Terry Richardson
Image from purple magazine, trendland.net.

6. Purple Magazine F/W 2009 August 2009
Best of the Season Fashion Spread
Images from purple magazine, trendland.net.

7. Men’s Pleasure | Ownership of Women
“To be born a woman has been to be
born, within an allotted and confined
space, into the keeping of men.”

8. Men’s Pleasure | Objectify Women
“To be born a woman has been to be
born, within an allotted and confined
space, into the keeping of men.”
“A naked body has to be seen as an
object in order to become a nude
(The sight of it as an object
stimulates the use of it as an
object.)”
- John Berger, Ways of Seeing (p. 40, 48)
Image from purple magazine, trendland.net.

9. Viewer’s Pleasure | Context
3 Nude Women
• Identical barbie dolls
• Striking make up & wild
unruly hair
• Seductive Poses
• Expressionless – things
to be done to them
• White background
Image from purple magazine,
trendland.net.

10. Viewer’s Pleasure | Context
3 Nude Women
• Identical barbie dolls
• Striking make up & wild
unruly hair
• Seductive Poses
• Expressionless – things
to be done to them
• White background
• Fantasy: Three wild sex
kittens in heels
• Three way lesbian
pornography
Image from purple magazine,
trendland.net.

11. Images from purple magazine, trendland.net.

12. Richardson’s Pleasure
Images from purple magazine, trendland.net.

13. Richardson’s Pleasure
• Broken fantasy
Images from purple magazine, trendland.net.

14. Richardson’s Pleasure
• Broken fantasy
• No longer mere
objectification of the 3
women
• Bent over – things done
to him – who’s in
control & enjoying?
Images from purple magazine, trendland.net.

15. Richardson’s Pleasure
• Broken fantasy
• No longer mere
objectification of the 3
women
• Bent over – things done
to him – who’s in
control & enjoying?
• Tongue in cheek,
irreverent commentary
of the portrayal of
women in fashion
Images from purple magazine, trendland.net.

16. Men’s Pleasure | Male Objectification
"A lot of it starts with me saying to a
girl, 'Do you want to do nudes?' And
they're like, 'I don't want to be
naked.' So I say, ' I'll be naked and
you take the pictures. You can have
the camera. You can have the
phallus...And since I'm in so many
of the pictures, aren't I
objectifying myself a bit?”
– Terry Richardson
in New York Observer, 2004
Image from purple magazine, trendland.net.

17. Richardson’s Pleasure; Male’s Pleasure
• Constructed poses
• Thumbs up for being in his position!
Images from purple magazine,
trendland.net.
Image from purple-diary.com

18. Richardson’s Pleasure; Male’s Pleasure
• Featuring Himself – Technique
• A celebrity himself
Terry Richardson & Gossip Girl Celebrities Lively
& Meester

19. Richardson’s Pleasure; Male’s Pleasure
• Featuring Himself – Technique
• A celebrity himself
• Power even over the celebrities
Richardson’s photography of Lindsay Lohan
Terry Richardson & Gossip Girl Celebrities Lively
& Meester

20. Dis-Pleasure | Critics | Controversy
• Pornography; printed or visual
material containing the explicit
description or display of sexual
organs or activity, intended to
stimulate sexual excitement.
- Oxford dictionary

21. Dis-Pleasure | Critics | Controversy
• Pornography; printed or visual
material containing the explicit
description or display of sexual
organs or activity, intended to
stimulate sexual excitement.
- Oxford dictionary
• Rie Rasmussen, in an interview with
New York Post in 2007 accuses
Richardson as a “sexual predator”
Rie Rasmussen from nypost.com

22. Consumer’s Pleasure | Steven Miesel’s State of
Emergency
Images from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.

23. Security’s | Male’s Pleasure
•Woman on her knees
•Flanked by male guards with
phallic batons
•Expressionless
•Security’s onus to subdue the
terrorist threat
Image from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.

24. Citizen’s Pleasure
•Subversion
• – non male / muslim,
goddess-like women with
heavy makeup
•Terrorism threat or victim?
Image from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.

25. Citizen’s Pleasure
•Subversion
• – non male / muslim,
goddess-like women with
heavy makeup
•Terrorism threat or victim?
“There is a vicarious
satisfaction in viewing these
depictions of cruelty in the
interests of national
security.”
-Joanne Bourke,
in The Guardian, 2006
Image from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.

26. Citizen’s Pleasure | Abu Ghraib Torture Imagery 2004
• Similar dogs & framing
•Media / Documentary style - public’s gaze
•Torture Imagery normalized, now
glamourized
Image from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.
Image from prisonplanet.com.

27. Consumer’s Pleasure | Torture Imagery
“Torture has not only
become normalised, it has
been integrated into one of
the most glamorous forms of
consumer culture - high
fashion. In our current moral
state of emergency, torture
imagery has become
fashionable.”
-Joanne Bourke,
in The Guardian, 2006
Image from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.

28. Consumer Pleasure | Woman as aggressor
Image from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.

29. Who’s Pleasure?
Torture imagery:
Desensitization ->
Normalization ->
Glamorization
Image from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.

30. Who’s Pleasure?
Torture imagery:
Desensitization ->
Normalization ->
Glamorization
Public gaze:
Poses to viewers the
justification of torture &
cruelty, power & authority
Costs?
Image from Vogue Italia, Trendland.net.

31. My Pleasure | Conclusion
• Both brilliant in their own rights
• Miesel’s social commentary gives me more pleasure rather than
• Richardson’s seemingly fun & self serving images
Images from Trendland.net.

32. References
• John Berger. 1972. Ways of Seeing. BBC & Penguin, Uk.
• Joanne, B., 2006. A Taste for Torture. The Guardian. 13 September. Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2006/sep/13/photography.pressandpub
lishing?INTCMP=SRCH [Accessed 13 February 2011].
• Phoebe E., 2004. Terry Richardson’s Dark Room. New York Observer. 19
September 2004. Available at: http://www.observer.com/node/49771 [Accessed
13 February 2011]
• Oxford Dictionary. Available at:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/pleasure?view=uk [Accessed 21
February 2011]

33. Image Reference 1
• Research image:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/res_rec/research.png
• Content is key image: http://djheights.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2009/11/content-is-the-key.png
• 4 Owners of Image:
http://www.mediate.com/navigatingresolutions/images/iStock%204%20hands
%20puzzle1.jpg
• Terry Richardson for Purple Magazine #12 Images:
http://trendland.net/2009/09/07/terry-richardson-gets-down-and-dirty-for-
purple-magazine/
• Behind the scene photos of Terry Richardson: http://www.purple-
diary.com/post/158182439/terry-richardson-eniko-magdalena-and-abbey-lee
• Terry Richardson & Gossip Girl Cast:
http://www.highsnobiety.com/news/2009/03/19/terry-richardson-shoots-gossip-
girl-actors-for-rolling-stone/

34. Image Reference 2
• Terry Richardson’s photography of Lindsay Lohan:
http://www.popbee.com/fashion/lindsay-lohan-by-terry-richardson-
2/attachment/lindsay-lohan-by-terry-richardson-080610-2/
• Steven Miesel State of Emergency Images:
http://trendland.net/2009/06/20/state-of-emergency-by-steven-meisel/
• Aiport Security Image: http://airuntukrakyat.com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/05/031225_airport_security_hmed6a.hmedium.jpg
• Abu Ghraib Prison Image:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/Pictures/Oct05/251005AbuGhraib.jpg

35. Bibliography
• Alison Lurie. 1992. The Language of Clothing. Bloomsberry, Uk.
• Mary Lynn Damhorst. The Meaning of Dress.