David Hamilton found dead in Paris

The British photographer David Hamilton has died at the age of 83, the  French police.

A police source told Reuters that Hamilton, best known for his pictures of teenage girls, killed himself in Paris, the Guardian reports. 

Hamilton, who lived much of his life in France and whose works appeared in high-end fashion magazines, was found unresponsive in his home by a neighbour who alerted emergency services, French radio station Europe 1 reported, without giving a source.

Hamilton had this month denied allegations by four of his former models that he had raped them.

He threatened to sue his accusers, saying he had previously been cleared of abuse.

The artist, whose whose work often raised questions about the dividing line between art and pornography, was at the centre of a raft of allegations after a French radio presenter accused him of raping her when she was 13.

Flavie Flament published an autobiographical novel last month in which she told of being raped by a famous photographer during a shoot.

Although she did not name Hamilton in The Consolation for fear of being sued, she used his photograph of her as the book’s cover.

Flament, 42, later told French media that Hamilton had raped her after three other women contacted her with near identical allegations.

Hamilton confirmed that Flament had been his model, but denied the allegations, telling Agence France-Presse 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 told AFP 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,” she added.

“The horror of this news will never erase the sleepless nights,” Flament told AFP, reiterating her allegations.

Hamilton said that his work looked for the “candour of a lost paradise”, and was most famous for his kitschy calendars of young girls and his soft-focus erotic films including “Bilitis” from 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 aged 20 inspired by the impressionist painters.

He first worked as a designer at Elle 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, were fashionable in the 70s and 80s but the style became seen as 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.