GREENFIELD - A renowned photographer, known largely for his portraits of naked adolescents, is facing a statutory rape charge after being accused of raping a woman when she was only 14-years-old, according to The Recorder.

70-year-old John Sturges, better known as "Jock Sturges," pleaded innocent to statutory rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over in Greenfield District Court on Friday.

The charges stem from accusations made by a woman in June of 2016, who told police that Sturges had sex with her when she was a 14-year-old High School student and he was a 28-year-old counselor working at Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH) in the mid-1970s.

The alleged incidents are said to have occurred between August 1975 and June 1976, according to the woman.

NMH, a private, co-ed preparatory school located in Northfield just north of Greenfield, apparently employed Sturges for a year during the window in which the crimes allegedly occurred.

The school's records show that Sturges' contract was not renewed "because of some dissatisfaction with his job performance," according to NMH spokesman Stephen Porter.

Porter confirmed that Sturges had worked at the school during that period as a photography instructor and a dorm head, and that the school's records do not state in any specific way why his position was terminated.

"We don't really know why he was let go. That's all we can determine from the historical records," Porter said.

Sturges's work has been featured in numerous high-profile museums, and he has published multiple volumes of photography, much of which consists of black-and-white prints of naked adolescents.

His work has not been without controversy, however.

In 1990, FBI agents seized thousands of photograph negatives, camera and computer equipment from the photographer's San Francisco home. The Bureau later justified the raid, stating that hundreds of the images confiscated focused on the "the genitals of pre-pubescent girls and fit the definition of child pornography."

The raid led to a Federal grand jury on Sturges' work, which eventually failed to indict him on child pornography charges.

Sturges has a case status meeting scheduled for July 6.