Terry Richardson, Strippers (2014)
Photo: © 2015 Terry Richardson. Courtesy Galerie Perrotin

Next month, the notorious photographer Terry Richardson will open a solo exhibition at Galerie Perrotin titled “The Sacred & The Profane,” his first at the Parisian gallery since 1999.

And, indeed, much has happened in Richardson’s life and career in the last 15 years. Particularly, his transition from being the “bad boy” behind the most titillating fashion photography to the “bad guy,” accused by a hoard of young female models of debasing and molesting them during creepy photographic sessions (see Art Critics Concur: Terry Richardson Is Not an Artist).

It’s not entirely surprising, then, that in “The Sacred & The Profane,” Richardson has steered clear of explicit images. The exhibition comprises a series of photographs taken over the last two years across the Western states of America that highlight the tension between religious imagery and the sex industry.

“Everywhere that I went, zealots were reminding me that Jesus is watching, that those who don’t attend church are destined for a fiery eternity, and that the ten commandments are very real and very serious,” Richardson writes in the exhibition’s press release. “At the same time, sex shops, strip clubs, and pornography are everywhere, guns are available easily in most places, and poverty, bigotry, ignorance, and hatred are pervasive in society, more-so in places that seem to be the most evangelical.”