Herb Ritts

1952-2002

Herbert Ritts Jr was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical Greek sculpture. Ritts began his career working in the family furniture business.

While living in Los Angeles, he became interested in photography when he and friend Richard Gere, an aspiring actor, decided to shoot some photographs in front of an old jacked up Buick. The picture gained Ritts some popularity and he began to be more serious about photography. He photographed Brooke Shields for the cover of an Elle magazine. He photographed artists like Olivia Newton-John and Madonna for their album covers.

History ofwork• During the 1980s and 1990s, Ritts photographed celebrities. He also took many fashion and nude photographs of

fashion models Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Stephanie Seymour.

• Ritts' work with them was successful in the 1990s era of the supermodel and was named by one of his most celebrated images, "Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood, 1989" taken for Rolling Stone Magazine.

• He also worked for Glamour, GQ, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Allure, Vanity Fair and Elle.

• He published many books on photography for fashion designers including- Giorgio Armani, Revlon, Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Calvin Klein, Maybelline, Victoria's Secret, Gap, Lancôme, and Valentino.

• From 1996 to 1997 his work was displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, attracting more than 250,000 people to the exhibit

Photographies

Pictures that inspire meThis picture inspires me because it looks unique. The background is a deserted place. The wind flowing the models dress is something different. The outfit of the model is simple but it stands out because of the direction of the wind. The way the model is posing also makes her look feminine as her body is pushed back and her high heels are shown and it almost look like she’s dancing.

This picture looks very feminine as the model is wearing a flowy princess-like dress. She shows one of her legs which hint out her elegance. This picture is also unique as we don’t usually see women running around the sea in a dress. This inspires me to do something different to my photography too.