American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Richard Gere, San Bernardino, 1979. Courtesy Fahey / Klein Gallery Los Angeles. Proceeds of the sale of this card benefit The American Foundation For Aids Research.
American postcard by Fotofolio, no. F829. Photo: Herb Ritts. Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990).
American postcard Classico, San Francisco /Winterland Productions / Rock Express, no. 460-053. Photo: Herb Ritts / Boy Toy Inc., 1991. Madonna, True Blue, 1986.
British postcard by Music Factory, no. 069. Photo: Herb Ritts. Brad Pitt.
French postcard by Editions SPK, Réf. 264. Photo: Herb Ritts. Tom Cruise.
Turning the gods and goddesses of the moment into the icons next door
Herbert Ritts Jr. was born in 1952 in Brentwood, Los Angeles. His father, Herb Ritts Sr. (née Rittigstein), was a furniture designer, and his mother, Shirley Ritts (née Roos), was an interior designer. Together, their furniture business helped to popularise rattan furniture in the 1950s and 1960s.
Raised in an affluent Jewish family, Herb and his three younger siblings lived next door to actor Steve McQueen, whom he considered to be "like a second father". At his bar mitzvah, his father gifted him with a Kodak Brownie camera. 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 1974 or 1975 (sources differ), he moved back to California to work as a sales representative in the family business, Ritts Co.
Herb bought his second camera for a vacation in 1976, a 35mm Miranda DX-3. In 1978, while living in Los Angeles, he became interested in photography when he and buddy Richard Gere went for a ride in the California desert. A tire blew somewhere near San Bernardino. To kill time while in a local garage getting the car fixed, Ritts started shooting Gere with his camera. In his white tank top, with long hair and cigarette dangling, Gere could have been a mechanic. A few months later, with three film roles quickly making him famous, Gere’s publicist asked for the pictures. The garage photos appeared in several magazines throughout Europe and the U.S., including Mademoiselle, Vogue and Esquire, which ran them under the headline 'The Beefcake Boys'.
Ritts, then 27, was suddenly a published portrait photographer. His first assignment was for Italian Harper's Bazaar. Ritts enlisted his roommate, a successful model named Matt Collins, for the shoot. The pair spent two days in the diffuse natural light beneath the Santa Monica Pier photographing the clothes, and the pictures were published. Collins also introduced Ritts to photographer Bruce Weber. Weber helped Ritts with contacts at fashion magazines and became Ritts’ mentor.
In 1981, he photographed Brooke Shields for a cover of Elle, and he photographed Olivia Newton-John for her 'Physical' album. Five years later, he replicated that cover pose with Madonna for her release, 'True Blue' (1986). That year, he photographed Tina Turner for the album 'Break Every Rule'. Bill Sharpsteen in Los Angeles Times: "His mostly black-and-white portraits of the glorified among us are shot with a facile eye for simplicity and style. They often are deceptively casual, sometimes ironic, stripped bare of backgrounds and occasionally clothes. They look like lucky shots of our friends on a good day, without the outlandish staging of David LaChapelle or the edginess of Annie Leibovitz. Ritts instead turns the gods and goddesses of the moment into the icons next door".
American postcard by Fotofolio, no. F838. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Richard Gere, San Bernardino, 1977.
American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CA, in the Personality series, no. 115. Photo: Herb Ritts / Contact. Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982).
American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. HR3. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Male with Tumbleweed, Paradise Cove, California, 1985.
British postcard by Box Office, no. BOPC 3038. Photo: Herb Ritts, 1986. Tom Cruise.
American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. HR8. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Jack Nicholson, Los Angeles, 1986.
American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y., no HR 2. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Pee-wee Herman on Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, 1987.
American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no HR69. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Tom Hanks, Hollywood, 1988. From the book 'Notorious'.
American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, N.Y., no. HR 62. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Sean Connery, Hollywood, 1989.
American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y., no HR81. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: David Bowie, Hollywood, 1989. From the book, 'Notorious'. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit the American Foundation for Aids Research.
American postcard by Fotofolio, no. F 419. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caprion: Djimon (Hounsou), Three-quarter nude, Profile, Hollywood, 1989.
Lasting, memorable images derided as mere celebrity posters with no deeper artistic value
During the 1980s and 1990s, Herb Ritts photographed celebrities in various locales throughout California. 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.
For Per Lui magazine, he made a spread called 'The Boys of the Body Shop' (1985). Ritts was assigned to photograph men’s raincoats but instead took his models to a gas station at Highland and Willoughby. He dressed them in vintage jeans, overalls and a few chains rented from Western Costumes. The best-known result of this slightly homoerotic tableau was 'Fred With Tires', featuring model Fred Harding holding two Winston tires in his muscular arms. Ritts also worked for Interview, Esquire, Mademoiselle, Glamour, GQ, Newsweek, Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Time, Vogue, Allure, Vanity Fair, Details, and Elle.
Ritts had an exclusive contract with publisher Conde Nast said to be worth about $1 million a year. As a fashion photographer, he worked for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Revlon and Giorgio Armani, earning some $40,000 a day plus another $40,000 or so for usage rights. Film studios such as Paramount and Warner Bros. hired him for movie advertising. Ritts took publicity portraits for the films Batman (Tim Burton, 1989), Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995), and Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997), which appeared on magazine covers and merchandise. He published books on photography for various fashion designers.
He made several classic photographs: Julia Roberts in her boyfriend’s skivvies, Madonna clutching her crotch, a cross-dressing Cindy Crawford, a paralysed Christopher Reeve and a post-brain surgery Elizabeth Taylor. He persuaded Madonna to pose with Minnie Mouse ears, and he immortalised Jim Carrey with a mermaid's tail. Ben Sharpsteen: "Ritts also has created remarkable portraits of Ronald Reagan, Tom Cruise, Stephen Hawking, the Dalai Lama and Monica Lewinsky at the height of her fame. They’re lasting, memorable images, and yet some have derided them as mere celebrity posters with no deeper artistic value."
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. In 2003, a solo exhibition was held at the Daimaru Museum in Kyoto, Japan. Herb Ritts was openly gay. He was in a relationship with entertainment lawyer Erik Hyman from 1996 until he died in 2002. His parents were accepting and supportive of his sexuality. Ritts was HIV-positive. He was first diagnosed in 1989 and used alternative herbal treatments to fight his condition. He never publicly disclosed his diagnosis. In 2002, Herb Ritts died in Los Angeles from pneumonia at the age of 50.
American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. HR67. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Goldie Hawn, Vancouver, 1989.
American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. HR70. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Denzel Washington, Hollywood, 1990.
American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. HR72. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Anjelica Huston, Visalia, 1990.
American postcard by Fotofolio, no. F430. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Johnny Depp, Los Angeles, 1990.
American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. HR 73. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Al Pacino, New York City, 1992.
American postcard by Fotofolio, no. F831. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Liam Neeson, Scotland, 1994.
American postcard by Fotofolio. Photo: Herb Ritts, 1994. Antonio Banderas.
Italian freecard by Promocards Kultural for Roma Palazzo della Espozioni, no. PC 2100. Photo: Herb Ritts. Tina Turner.
French postcard, Réf. 525. Photo: Herb Ritts. Tom Cruise.
Dutch postcard by Verkerke Postcard, no. 30248. Photo: Herb Ritts / Boy Toy Inc. Madonna.
Source: Bill Sharpsteen (Los Angeles Times), Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.
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