Herb Ritts Collectibles and Curiosities

The quintessential distillation of American Pop culture in the eighties, "Pictures" by Herb Ritts, circa 1988. The book is in very good vintage condition and measures 11.25" x 14.5". A must have! #4282 Herb Ritts 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. Ritts was born in Los Angeles, California to a prosperous family. His parents, Herb and Shirley Ritts, owned a successful furniture business. He received an economics degree from Bard College in upstate New York in 1974 and soon after returned to Los Angeles to work as a sales representative for his family's business. He came out as gay to his parents while in college; they were accepting and supportive. 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. He started his long term collaboration with Madonna in 1984, when he shot the ad for her movie Desperately Seeking Susan. In 1984, he photographed Eagles drummer and vocalist Don Henley for his second solo album Building the Perfect Beast. 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 1988, he photographed Steve Winwood for his Roll With It album. In 1989, he photographed Belinda Carlisle...