Going through gayling adolescence in the late 1980's and early 1990's meant being very aware of Herb Ritts' work. If you weren't surreptiously stealing glances at his celebrated male nudes (like the iconic Fred With Tires, above), then you were watching Janet Jackson cavort with Antonio Sabato, Jr. in a Ritts-directed music video; or leafing through Vogue and marveling at his fashion shoots; or surreptiously tearing the Ritts-lensed Marky Mark underwear ads from the pages of GQ. You knew that he was the preferred portrait photographer for Madonna and Diana Ross; and that he was handsome, gay, successful -- something to aspire to.
Which is why Ritts' sudden death from pneumonia-related complications stemming from his HIV status at age 50 came as such a shock; in a strange way, it was like losing a favorite teacher from high school. The fact that Ritts was the first high-profile person in a long time to pass away from HIV-related causes also came as a sobering reminder that, despite the relative quiet on the media front, the disease is still with us.
Herb Ritts would have been 56 today. Thanks for the great memories and images.
HERB RITTS (August 13, 1952 - December 26, 2002)
Such a great loss.
ReplyDeleteI only worked with him once and was rather intimidated by his history.
As I was posting this, I was thinking, "I KNOW Dray will have worked with him!"
ReplyDeleteYou are so sweet.
ReplyDeleteOnly the one time sadly.