ACCUSED OF RAPE DIES
PARIS:
Song
Tower of in the shower of his apartment after spotting her in a nudist resort at Cap d’Agde in southwest France, where she was on holiday with her parents.
Hamilton confirmed Flament had been his model, but denied the allegations, saying on Tuesday: “I have done nothing improper.”
“Clearly, the instigator of this media-lynching is looking for her 15 minutes of fame by defaming me in her novel,” he said, adding that he would take legal action.
Flament’s editor, Karina Hocine, said on Friday the radio presenter was “devastated” by the news of Hamilton’s death.
“Naturally, we feel horrified and, at the same time, really disgusted that there was not enough time for justice to run its course.”
“The horror of this news will never erase the sleepless nights,” Flament said, reiterating her allegations.
Hamilton had said that his work looked for the “candour of a lost paradise”.
He was famous for his kitschy calendars of young girls and his soft-focus erotic films, including
(1977).
He was born in London in 1933 and studied architecture as a young man, but it was in Paris where he first started to work in fashion, having moved there when he was 20 after being inspired by the impressionist painters.
He first worked as a designer at
magazine and then as an artistic director at the luxury Le Printemps department store.
With no formal training in photography, he found his calling aged 33, seeking his models in the streets and on the beaches.
He became known for his trademark “Hamilton blur”, his photos often bathed in a very distinctive artistic vagueness. His photos’ subdued light, bluish tint and young girls, often blonde, blue-eyed and crowned with flowers.
They were fashionable in the 1970s and 1980s, but the style became passe in later decades, and his pictures were considered disturbing by some.
Under the French statute of limitations, charges must be brought within 20 years for rape and 10 years for sexual abuse. However, in a twist on Tuesday, the French minister for children’s and women’s rights asked Flament to head a body, which would look at whether to extend the statute of limitations.