The Photo Times: Empire State Building sues photographer Allen Henson for "unauthorized ...

Photographer Allen Henson snapped a topless model at the top of the Empire State Building in August

The management is now suing him for creating a ‘potentially dangerous situation’ at a ‘safe and secure family friendly tourist attraction’

Henson is no stranger to controversy; last year he hit headlines for photographing topless models in New York restaurants and bars

In another incident, he snapped a topless model with two NYPD officers

By

Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED:

22:05, 13 January 2014

|
UPDATED:

01:00, 14 January 2014

A photographer who snapped images of a topless model at the top of the Empire State Building has been sued for $1 million by the skyscraper’s management.

ESRT Empire State Building claims in court papers filed in Manhattan that photographer Allen Henson failed to request permission for the stripped-down shoot on August 9, 2013.

By taking the photographs of model Shelby Carter, Henson caused ‘damage to its business and reputation as a safe and secure family friendly tourist attraction’, the suit claims.

Busted: Photographer Allen Henson has been sued by the Empire State Building

Busted: Photographer Allen Henson has been sued by the Empire State Building’s management for carrying out a topless photo shoot on the observation deck without asking for permission

Snapped: The lawsuit says the shoot could have been

Snapped: The lawsuit says the shoot could have been ‘potentially dangerous’ but the photographer argues that no one even noticed that she was topless – as they were admiring the other view

‘Breasts are dangerous? I’ll take the publicity but it’s hard to take this seriously,’ Henson, 29, told the New York Daily News.

The management claims that even if Henson

had filed an application to carry out the shoot, they would not have

granted him permission.

The suit claims that when he and Carter went to the deck, ‘it was crowded with visitors, including children’ and that staff had to divert their time to deal with the ‘potentially dangerous situation’.

It is demanding $1.1 million in damages from Henson and a court order banning him from returning.

Sued: Photographer Allen Henson has been snapping topless women around the city since last year

But Henson has apparently laughed

off the suit, writing on his Facebook page: ‘This should be

interesting… Stay tuned’ – before adding a smiley emoticon.

He said that no tourists objected to the shoot, which was simply carried out with his cell phone.

‘She has nice breasts but people were

looking at the view,’ he said. ‘It was a beautiful day. I don’t think

anybody noticed, to be honest.’

Henson,

who has denied he was shooting for commercial purposes, said he carried

out the shoot – one of several – following reports last year that women

being topless in New York was legal.

The photographer, who appears to have laughed off the suit, is no stranger to controversy.

He previously photographed model Cheyenne Lutek, 19, exposing her bare breasts at a Manhattan restaurants while astounded patrons looked on – before she was asked to leave.

They then took their stunt one step further – with Ms Lutek posing with police officers near their Housing Bureau station.

After snapping the shot, Henson

tweeted: ‘A nice stroll on a New York Summer evening. With

@Cheyenne_Lutek and a couple of NYC’s finest boys in blue.’

An investigation was launched into the officers’ conduct, although it was expected that they’d only get a verbal reprimand.

Project: He first snapped a topless model, Cheyenne Lutek, in a Manhattan restaurant in July

Making friends: A week after she was thrown out of the restaurant, she posed with two police officers

Following that shoot, Hensen took another model, Shelby Carter, to a rooftop restaurant, where she posed topless as bewildered diners sat around her.

The managers called police who met the duo outside restaurant.

The spectacles came after the New York City Police Department released an official memo last May informing all police officers that it is not illegal for women to walk around the city shirtless.

The order given to the cityâ€™s 34,000 cops stems from a 1992 New York State Court of Appeals, which states that baring one’s chest in public is legal for a woman as it is for a man.