Photographer Christopher Anderson recounts his unnerving 2015 assignment to photograph Jeffrey Epstein, detailing the financier's intimidation, his 'creepy' New York home, and the subsequent recovery of photos, one of which revealed an email hinting at a royal financial entanglement with Epstein.
Christopher Anderson, assigned by New York magazine in 2015 to photograph Jeffrey Epstein, initially unaware of Epstein's past as a convicted child sex offender, describes his unsettling encounter. Epstein, whom Anderson found 'quite an unnerving person,' demanded an advance meeting and attempted to buy the photo rights. The shoot at Epstein's 'creepy' and 'Donald Trump-esque' New York City home included witnessing a young woman with an Eastern European accent taking down a massage table. After the magazine article fell through, Epstein's team, including an intimidating man named Merwin, aggressively demanded the hard drive containing the photos. Anderson's name appeared in the recently released Epstein files due to email exchanges about these photos. He later rediscovered copies, and one image taken in Epstein's mansion shockingly shows a printed email on a desk detailing a $60,000 claim in unpaid staff wages related to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson, suggesting they sought Epstein's financial assistance. This experience is featured in Anderson's new book, 'Index,' which spans his 30-year career, including award-winning photojournalism from conflict zones like Haiti and Afghanistan, celebrity portraits, and work on Donald Trump's inner circle. Anderson, known for his commitment to depicting truth, asserts his journalistic responsibility to photograph even controversial figures like Epstein, believing his role is to reveal something about the subject, regardless of their notoriety.
