Remembering Herb Ritts
Last year, on December 27th, one of the greatest photographers of all times died. His work helped Madonna becoming the ultimate icon. His name is Herb Ritts
Click to go to our gallery of selected Herb Ritts images
Herb Ritts was born in 1952, and grew up in southern California. He began his career in the late 1970s with informal portraits of friends in the movie industry. The photographer himself attributes his first success to shots of actor Richard Gere taken on a desert excursion that ended with a flat tire. Ritts mastered his craft and developed his personal aesthetic photographing men’ s and women’ s fashions, often for Italian magazines, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His sequences frequently had a narrative theme and a specific period setting. A fashion spread on jeans and overalls echoes the early Gere portrait: Ritts rented a fifties garage in Los Angeles and cast his muscular models as greasy garage mechanics. Ritts’ s eye for period style and his instinct for the timing of fashion revivals enhance his ability to make pictures that fire the imagination.
In 1984, Ritts meets Madonna on the set of her first major movie, Desperately Seeking Susan where Ritts was shooting the star of the film, Rosanna Arquette.
A legend tells that when he had finished with Rosanna, he saw Madonna seated on a chair waiting to film a scene of the movie. He reportedly said to his assistant “I wanna shoot this girl”. The assistant replied: ” The only clothes we have left are men’s boxers!!!”
Ritts answered: “Then place them on her head!! She’s gonna be huge!”
So, if you watch closely some of the pictures from that shoot, you can spot Madonna wearing her costume from the “Taxi” scene from “Susan“, with some men’s boxers on her head.
After that Ritts becomes a vital element in Madonna’s career. With his camera he documents every major look change of the star from the second part of the eighties, all through the nineties, shooting some of her most famous album covers, such as True Blue, You Can Dance, Like a Prayer and The Immaculate Collection
Ritts was also the official photographer of her wedding to Sean Penn .
He was convinced in 1989 by Madonna herself to try a new career twist as a music video director.
Without compromising his artistic integrity, Ritts took the chance to transpose his art, creativity and photo skills into video form and directed his first music video.
Madonna’s “Cherish” is in fact, a beautiful “moving version” of his pictures.
He then directed some videos for other artists such as “Love will never do” for Janet Jackson in 1990, “Wicked game” for Chris Isaak and “In the closet” for Michael Jackson in 1992, Britney Spears‘ “Don’t let me be the last to know” and Jennifer Lopez‘s Ain’t it funny in 2001. His last music video in March 2002 was “Underneath your clothes” for Shakira.
Ritts captured Madonna all about, from street girl to glamour queen or innocent child with Mickey Mouse ears. The latter, used as the cover of the Uk single of Dear Jessie in 1989, is also one of the pictures Madonna has of herself in her Maverick office.
“Herb Ritts will always hold a very special place in my heart. I met him at the beginning of my career, and he became like a brother to me. I love the pictures that he took of me throughout the years & more recently the pictures he has taken of my children-Simple, straightforward & beautiful-like Herb. I’m gonna miss that boy.” Madonna
Madonna and Herb Ritts
