that point, his career escalated, moving from fash-
ion photography for the top national and interna-
tional magazines such asHarper’s Bazaar, Vogue,
Elle,Vanity Fair, andRolling Stone, among others,
to album covers and music videos for singers such
as Madonna, Cher, and Elton John. His black-and-
white 1987 portrait of Madonna showing the pop
singer in profile throwing her head back has in fact
become one of his signature images. In 1991, two of
his music videos won MTV awards for best female
video (Janet Jackson) and best male video (Chris
Isaak). His portrait series for the Gap clothing cor-
poration received the Infinity Award for Applied
Photography from the International Center of
Photography in New York.
While Ritts received no professional training,
his influences can be found in artists such as Man
Ray and the great fashion photographers of the
second half of the twentieth century, including
Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber,
and Patrick Demarchelier, who often posed their
models against uncluttered, even stark backgrounds.
Ritts’s style, however, was his own, one which
uniquely captured the glamour associated with Hol-
lywood and Southern California. Working in both
color and black and white, although primarily in the
latter, Ritts’s images are bold and dynamic, with the
sitters often strongly emoting for the camera. Yet
Ritts also photographed a number of celebrity sub-
jects with painted faces that hide or disguise emo-
tion, such as the 1988 series of actor Jack Nicholson
as The Joker. Another work clearly influenced by
Surrealism is a portrait of actor Dustin Hoffman as
surrealist painter Salvador Dali (Dustin Hoffman,
Los Angeles, 1996). The hiding of one’s identity, no
matter how well known the subject may be, is a
consistent theme in Ritts’s work.
The breadth of Ritts’s accomplishment is consid-
erable. Luminous images of celebrities contrast
with haunting representations of Africa and its
peoples. From seductive commercial layouts to
pure studies of the naked human form, Herb Ritts’s
trademark is formal simplicity combined with eye-
catching graphic qualities, such as stark black-and-
white, or distinct, massive forms, such as inFemale
Nude with Tumbleweed, Paradise Cove, 1986. His
oeuvre, however, can be divided into four areas:
celebrities, fashion, nude or form studies, and his
photographs of east Africa. His celebrity photo-
graphs were often optimistic and playful shots cap-
turing the subject in terms of his or her trademark
feature. His fashion work, even though his clientele
included virtually every top magazine and designers
such as Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, The Gap,
Giorgio Armani, and Versace, often challenged
conventional notions of gender or race, and ren-
dered the most mundane product mythical in its
haunting intimacy. His studies in the natural beauty
of form celebrate the human body as strong and
sensuous, and take clear pleasure in evoking the
tactile appeal of surface textures— the body flecked
with grains of sand, veiled in sheer fabric, caked
with dried mud, or exposed to flowing water. His
stunning images of east Africa, collected on a 1993
trip, record the Maasai people, animals, and the
landscape they inhabit as a timeless world of vast
spaces and ancient ways, deliberately disconnected
from the worlds of fashion and fame. His work can
be found in the following published collections:
Herb Ritts,Herb Ritts: Pictures,Body Art,Men/
Women,Duo: Herb Ritts Photographs Bob Paris &
Rod Jackson,Notorious,Africa, andWork. He died
in December 2002 from AIDS-related pneumonia
complications.
MarcLeverette
Seealso:Fashion Photography; PortraitureBiography
Born in Los Angeles, California, 13 August 1952. Gradu-
ated Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York,
with a degree in economics; self-educated in photogra-
phy. Worked as fashion and celebrity photographer for
numerous publications includingVanity Fair,Rolling
Stone,Harper’s Bazaar,Vogue. Award-winning music
video director featuring Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson,
Chris Isaak, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Bon Jovi, and
others. Died in Los Angeles, California, 26 December
2002.Selected Individual Exhibitions
1994 Fahey/Klein Gallery; Los Angeles, California
Allene La Pides Gallery; Sante Fe, New Mexico
Staley-Wise Gallery; New York, New York
1995 Parco Gallery; Tokyo, Japan
Fay Gold Gallery; Atlanta, Georgia
Arthur Roger Gallery; New Orleans, Louisiana
1996 Fahey/Klein Gallery; Los Angeles, California
Robert Klein Gallery; Boston, Massachusetts
Work; Museum of Fine Arts; Boston, Massachusetts
1997 Africa; Albany Museum of Art; Albany, New York
Allene La Pides Gallery; Sante Fe, New Mexico
Fay Gold Gallery; Atlanta, Georgia
Work; Kunsthaus Wien; Vienna, Austria
1998 Herb Ritts; Gallery of Contemporary Art, Lewis and
Clark College; Portland, Oregon
SK Josefberg Studio; Portland, Oregon
Byron Mapp Gallery; Sydney, Australia
1999 Herb Ritts,Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain;
Paris, France
Work; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art; Kan-
sas City, Missouri
Work; Museum of Art; Fort Lauderdale, FloridaRITTS, HERB