Model Emily Ratajkowski spoke in a column published in The New York Times. She accuses a photographer of sexual assault.
Celebrity model Emily Ratajkowski shared a chilling testimonial recently published. In an article published in the New York Times, she says she was sent to photographer Jonathan Leder by her agent. This was a photo shoot for Darius magazine. But when she arrives at the meeting, she discovers that the shoot is done in lingerie, information that would not have been communicated to her before. The photographer serves her wine and he finally asks her to get naked. The young woman complies. She writes in the famous tribune: "I've always been told how important it is to have a reputation for hardworking and being easy going. My agent keeps telling me that we don't know who the photographers will shoot with afterwards. "
The shooting ends late at night. The makeup artist, who was there to work with Emily Ratajkowski and Jonathan Leder, eventually leaves. At this point, the 20-year-old seems less and less at ease. She realizes that the presence of the makeup artist reassured her throughout the shoot: “I was angry with her for leaving me and I didn't want to admit that her presence had made all the difference until then. I thought I could handle it on my own.”
The photographer continues to make her drink and the young woman is, finally, more and more alcoholic. She ends up lying next to the photographer and confides that from there, everything became blurry: “Everything that happens after is a blur in my head, except my feelings. I don't remember kissing him, but I remember his fingers inside me. Getting stronger and stronger (…) it really, really made me feel I instinctively grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand out forcefully. I didn't say a word. He stood up abruptly and walked away silently into the darkness. "
After that, she will not meet the photographer again. Later, she finds out that he published photos of her in a book without her permission. These accusations are, for the moment, denied by Jonathan Leder's lawyers.
This isn't the first time that a model has broken the silence around sexual assault in her workplace. We remember the affair of photographer Terry Richardson. Actress Rie Rasmussen accused him of sexually exploiting young girls. Through his autobiographical book Consolation, Flavie Flament also revealed to have been raped by David Hamilton.