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Herb Ritts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herb Ritts (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002) was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits in the style of classical Greek sculpture. Consequently some of his more famous pieces are of male and female nudes in what can be called glamour photography.
He was born in Los Angeles, California to a prosperous family who owned a furniture business.
In 1974 he received an economics degree from Bard College in upstate New York and soon after returned to Los Angeles to work as a sales representative for his family's business.
However, Ritts started taking night classes in photography and decided to dedicate himself to the art in the late 1970s. His first break into the business occurred as a result of taking portraits of his actor friend Richard Gere. These photos gained national exposure on the covers of many magazines.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he worked with magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Vogue on portraits of famous people and artistic photos of models.
Subjects of his black-and-white celebrity portraits included Kofi Annan, Cindy Crawford, Tenzin Gyatso (the Dalai Lama), Madonna, Jack Nicholson and Elizabeth Taylor.
In 1981, Ritts took photos for the album cover of Olivia Newton-John's Physical.
Ritts started his long term collaboration with Madonna in 1984, when he shot the ad for her movie Desperately Seeking Susan.
In 1986, Ritts shot the cover photo of Madonna's True Blue album. He later ventured into the world of music video at a suggestion of Madonna and filmed her video "Cherish". In 1989 he photographed Belinda Carlisle for her Runaway Horses album.
He photographed Cindy Crawford for the July 1988, and October 1998 issues of Playboy.
Ritts proved himself to be successful in directing music videos. In 1991 two of these, Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" and Janet Jackson's "Love Will Never Do (Without You)", won MTV Video Music Awards. He co-directed Michael Jackson's "In the Closet" video which featured supermodel Naomi Campbell. He also directed videos for Mariah Carey's "My All", Britney Spears' "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know", Jennifer Lopez's "Ain't It Funny" and Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes", the latter was completed shortly before his death.
He died in Los Angeles from pneumonia-related complications. Reports state that he was HIV-positive but that was not the cause of death. He left behind his partner Erik Hyman.
Ritts' final published photographs were those of actor Ben Affleck in Vanity Fair magazine.
- 2002 July: Lacoste - "Pour Homme"
- 2002 March: Shakira - "Underneath Your Clothes"
- 2001 September: 'N Sync - "Gone"
- 2001 July: Jennifer Lopez - "Ain't It Funny"
- 2001 March: Britney Spears - "Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know"
- 2000 April: Tracy Chapman - "Telling Stories"
- 1999 July: Chris Isaak - "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing"
- 1998 March: Mariah Carey - "My All"
- 1997 - : Giorgio Armani - "Acqua Di Giò"
- 1996 June: Toni Braxton - "Let It Flow"
- 1994 December: Jon Bon Jovi - "Please Come Home For Christmas"
- 1993 - : Guy Laroche - "Horizon"
- 1993 - : Calvin Klein - "Escape"
- 1992 April: Michael Jackson - "In The Closet"
- 1991 February: Chris Isaak - "Wicked Game"
- 1990 October: Janet Jackson - "Love Will Never Do (Without You)"
- 1989 August: Madonna - "Cherish"