Photographer: Bob Richardson (Father of Terry Richardson)

Terry Richardson Talking about his Father
"When I was a kid, I used to go to London to see Dad and Anjelica. Last time I saw her she was like: "What happened to all that beautiful hair? You used to be so cute."

When I look at the photos Dad did with her and Donna Mitchell in the 60's and early 70's, they were so ahead of their time, they were perfect. In the context of fashion it's really hard to do that, with all the people involved and the clothes, and his are just amazing, beautiful, powerful photographs.

I guess there are certain parallels in our work, but my dad's pictures were soulful and dark and decadent but very human and real. My pictures are a little lighter. They are about high energy and sex and excess. Spontaneity. Sometimes I will take moody pictures with natural light and think, "That feels like my dad."

In the early 90's I came to New York to get some work, and Dad was here and wanted to teach. We were totally broke and worked together doing little beauty pages for Mademoiselle and Glamour. As you can imagine, working together was pretty interesting. He would always say: "You have to really make an impression on people. You have to set yourself apart and do a number on them." So we would grab a 70's slide projector, a screen and a boom box and take the subway up to Condé Nast. We'd walk in to see Linda Wells at Allure, and blast "Head Like a Hole," by Nine Inch Nails, and give them a slide show — some of his old pictures, some of mine, some we did together — like 10 people would run out of the room, looking at us like we were insane.

We did that for like six months until Vibe gave us a fashion story, and I called Dad and said, "I can't do it with you, I have to do it on my own," and he said, "You can't do it without me, I won't speak to you again." So I showed up for the shoot the next day, praying he wouldn't show up.

Dad never wanted to compromise — he just wouldn't.

When he met my mom in the early 60's, she gave up her acting career and they started to work together. Occasionally they would go off with a bag of clothes and do everything themselves. There was no makeup or hair, she styled everything and they'd work on ideas together.

He would say he wasn't interested in the past and never kept anything. When he was younger he cared about a nice car, but when he got older material possessions became less important. He liked being with his dog, which I have adopted now. It's weird; he was here at Thanksgiving, fit as a fiddle. I guess he was watching TV and just lay down and died."

Photographer: Craig McDean

Model: Coco ROcha

Vogue US May 2008