Fashion photographer Terry Richardson 'banned from working for Condé Nast magazines'

Fashion photographer Terry Richardson, renowned for his sexually explicit images of models, has been banned by Condé Nast magazines, it has been reported.

An email sent around the media group, which publishes titles such as Vogue, GQ and Glamour, instructed staff that any work commissioned from Richardson should not run or be replaced.

For years, he has faced claims of allegations of sexual exploitation of models, which he has always denied.

Soon after an article questioned why in the climate following revelations of sexual harassment against Harvey Weinstein, Richardson was still being used, the Telegraph reported that Condé Nast International's chief operating officer, James Woolhouse, wrote a message stating: "Condé Nast would like to no longer work with the photographer Terry Richardson.

"Any shoots that have been commission[ed] or any shoots that have been completed but not yet published, should be killed and substituted with other material."

Richardson has worked with artists like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and he directed the controversial video for the song Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus, in which she simulated sex while swinging around on a demolition ball.

In a letter by Richardson, published on the Huffington Post website in 2014, in response to rumours about his behaviour, he wrote: "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."