The famed fashion photographer Mario Testino closed his New York office of his creative agency Mariotestino +, which he opened less than a year ago. Its head Brigid Walsh also left her leadership position back in March.
New York Times expose in January (18) accused him of sexual assault and harassment, providing detailed accounts from 13 male models, including Roman Barrett, Jason Fedele and Ryan Locke, and assistants dating allegations back to the 1990s. An additional five accusations of the same nature came to light in March.
Though 63-year-old Testino has strenuously denied all allegations made against him, and previously described his accusers as “mentally ill” or “disgruntled employees. Earlier in January 2018, Condé Nast (Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair) reported that it would no longer order and publish the work of Mario Testino while Michael Kors and Stuart Weitzman have also refused to work with him on any ad campaigns.
Locke, who worked with Testino on a Gucci campaign in the ’90s, referred to him as “a sexual predator” in the article, which reported claims of groping, masturbation and aggressive coercion on and off-set.
However, Mario Testino continues to work, but it is not known who exactly orders the photographer’s work now. Among other areas of his work – the production of books, the creation of exhibitions and media projects.
