Herb Ritts Biography and Artwork

born Los Angeles, CA (USA) 1952 died Los Angeles, CA (USA) 2002

Herb Ritts (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002) was a 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 Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines 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.

Ritts also directed several music videos. In 1991 two of these, Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" and Janet Jackson's "Love Will Never Do (Without You)", won MTV awards. He also directed the video for Mariah Carey's 13th #1 single My All, shortly before his death.

He died in Los Angeles from pneumonia-related complications. He leaves his partner Erik Hyman.

Ritts' final published photographs were of actor Ben Affleck in Vanity Fair magazine.

Select Timeline

Select Exhibitions

• 1988 - Staley-Wise Gallery New York, NY
• 1988 - Fahey-Klein Gallery Los Angeles, CA
• 1993 - Notorious, Allene LaPides Gallery Santa Fe, NM
• 1995 - Work, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA
• 1995 - Africa, Allene LaPides Gallery Santa Fe, NM

Select Videos

• 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 Gio"
• 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"

Quotes

• "Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman."
• "Each time I did assignments or editorials, I realized that I wanted to do something more. I saw that it wasn't just about the clothes."
• "Coming from California and growing up where I did, I've always had a fondness for and innate sensitivity to light, texture, and warmth."
• "For me, the most important thing I learned was just honing my eye. I think I had a good eye."
• "And what excites me most is the type of public, the fact that the Parisian people have a broader cultural understanding than many Americans do."
• "I abstract it in my photographs: I like large planes and spaces, areas of texture and light, like deserts or oceans or monumental places."
• "I always enjoyed art history because, growing up in California, my exposure was limited, and it was a new experience. To learn the history of art opened up certain things to me, made me see. It intrigued me."
• "I did grow up next door to Steve McQueen, who was a very famous movie star at the time, but as a kid it didn't impress me. We always had great fun with him. He would take us out on Sundays on his motorcycles, riding around in the desert; he was like a second father."
• "I'd go down to the end of my street, to a garage that had a certain feeling about it, or a particular light; I'd take a picture of a friend who needed a head shot. That's how I learned, instead of having school assignments and learning camera techniques."
• "I'm pretty selective. I generally edit the contact sheets and then do work prints. Because I have my own lab and printers, I can afford the luxury of going through the contact sheets for black-and-white, making up work prints, seeing them big, and honing them down."
• "Once you develop your own style, you know when you're able to give your best. Feeling at home is part of it, and I don't think that's an L.A. thing. It's a matter of the environment and of what affects you."
• "That's why I felt so at home when I went to Africa. It didn't matter that I was halfway around the world in a foreign country, because all those elements are universal. And I think that's one thing about my work: It's universal."
• "Well, I liked it - that was the main thing. I liked it, but I didn't think of it in terms of a career. I didn't really know; I didn't really think about it. One thing just led to another until finally I quit my job as a salesman and found myself working as a photographer."
• "Within two hours of where I live, you have mountains and desert as location. I like the natural elements that abstract into light, texture, shape and shadow."

Publications

• Herb Ritts: Work - by Herb Ritts (Author), Trevor Fairbrother (Author), Malcolm Rogers (Author), Richard Martin (Author), Steve Meise, Bulfinch; 1st ed edition (November 1, 1996)
• Notorious - by Herb Ritts, Bulfinch (November 24, 1992)
• Africa - Little, Brown and Company/ Bulfinch Press 1994

Quick Facts

• Herb Ritts was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits in the style of classical Greek sculpture.
• He was born in Los Angeles, California to a prosperous family who owned a furniture business.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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