Herb Ritts

Herb Ritts was a highly successful photographer, who worked specialising in pictures of celebrities which defied the conventional rules of the portrait genre. His unorthodox shots, often in black and white, were phenomenally influential and frequently captured aspects of their subjects which had previously been ignored.

was born in Los Angeles, he began his early career working in his families furniture business. He later moved to the East Coast where he attended ‘Bard College’ in New York, here he studied economics and art history and attained a major in each. Later, while still living in Los Angeles, he became interested in photography. His friend, and aspiring actor Richard Gere, decided to shoot some images together. The photographs he took gained some coverage and from then became more serious about a photography career. Ritts said “I can't remember whether I told Richard to put his arms over his head or whether I just clicked when he stretched. And he really smoked a lot. He was like that, a handsome kid and very sexy.”

Throughout his career he has photographed numerous icons and celebs including the Elle cover of Brooke shields in1981, Olivia Newton-John for her ‘Physical’ album also in the same year. Five years later he photographed Madonna for her 1986 release True Blue. His career was looking up, During the 1980s and 1990’s he’d photographed even more notable people including, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, George Clooney, Cher, Elizabeth Taylor, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Madonna, , Elton John and of course Richard Gere to name a few.

He also began working for magazines like GQ, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Elle and many more. He published books for leading fashion designers and had his work displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Massachusetts, attracting over 250,000 people to the exhibit. Not only had he photographed icons, worked for leading magazines, published books for designers and created successful advertising campaigns, he also began directing music video’s. Madonna’s song "Cherish" in 1989 was to become his first. In 1991, he won two MTV Video Awards for his work on music videos for Janet Jackson and Chris Isaak.

Herb Ritts work frequently involved nude images, as for many photographers. His images of models, of athletes and bodybuilders all celebrate the human body as strong, sensuous, and beautiful works of art in themselves. Ritts took pleasure in using the tactile appeal of exterior textures, showing the body splashed with grains of sand, veiled in sheer fabric, caked with mud, or exposed to water. While some figures gloat in their male or female identity, the emphasis on other images could be on the shapes of limbs and muscles or the connection of intertwined bodies.

 Herb died in December, 2002, of complications from pneumonia at the age of 50.

Heres some of his work.