Herbert Ritts Jr.

Place: Brentwood

Born: 1952

Death: 2002

Biography:

Herbert Ritts Jr. was an American fashion photographer and director known for his photographs of celebrities, models, and other cultural figures throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His work concentrated on black and white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture, which emphasized the human shape. Ritts was born in Brentwood, Los Angeles, to a furniture designer father and an interior designer mother. He attended Palisades High School and moved to upstate New York in 1972 to study at Bard College, where he received a degree in economics with a minor in art history. Upon graduation in 1975, he moved back to California to work as a sales representative in the family business. He bought his first camera in 1976, a 35mm Miranda DX-3. Later, while living in Los Angeles, he became interested in photography and began to be more serious about it. He photographed Brooke Shields for the cover of the October 12, 1981 edition of Elle and he photographed Olivia Newton-John for her Physical album in 1981. Five years later he replicated that cover pose with Madonna for her 1986 release True Blue. That year he photographed Tina Turner for the album Break Every Rule. During the 1980s and 1990s, Ritts photographed celebrities in various locales throughout California. Some of his subjects during this time included musical artists. He also took fashion and nude photographs of models Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington, and Cindy Crawford. Ritts' work with them ushered in the 1990s era of the supermodel and was consecrated by one of his most celebrated images, 'Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood, 1989' taken for Rolling Stone. He also worked for Interview, Esquire, Mademoiselle, Glamour, GQ, Newsweek, Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Time, Vogue, Allure, Vanity Fair, Details, and Elle. Ritts took publicity portraits for Batman, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin which appeared on magazine covers and merchandise throughout the 1990s. He published books on photography for various fashion designers. From 1996 to 1997 Ritts' work was displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, attracting more than 250,000 people to the exhibit, and in 2003 a solo exhibition was held at the Daimaru Museum, in Kyoto, Japan. Ritts was openly gay and was in a relationship with entertainment lawyer Erik Hyman from 1996 until his death in 2002. He was first diagnosed with HIV in 1989 and used alternative herbal treatments to fight his condition. He never publicly disclosed his diagnosis. On December 26, 2002, Ritts died in Los Angeles from pneumonia at the age of 50.