Two Very Good Reasons

Months had passed since I’d first written about Alyssa Arce and in that time she’d made no attempt to present herself to the world in any other format: no TV series, no film, not even a cameo in a music video. Just nakedness and that spectacular chest, which I suppose is its own complete body of work. She’s American, she was 21 at the time, and Terry Richardson kept pointing his camera at her—which is either a mark of distinction or a mark of something else entirely, depending on your feelings about Terry Richardson. My feelings about Terry Richardson are complicated and largely irrelevant here, because the photographs exist and she looks extraordinary in them.

I’m not complaining about the absence of a broader career. Some reputations are built on range. Others are built on two very specific and impressive strengths, and there’s something almost purist about committing to that. Whatever his reasons for casting her again, I can make a fairly educated guess at the general shape of them.