Herb Ritts: L.A. Style - Hardcover

by James Crump (Contribution by), Paul Martineau (Author)

Herb Ritts's iconic images capture sensuality, celebrity, and artistry at the intersection of fashion and culture

"Ritts was L.A. style."--Vogue

"Cindy, Naomi, Christy. All the supermodels are front and center in this stunning roll call that is Herb Ritts: L.A. Style - Harper's Bazaar

Herb Ritts: L.A. Style charts the life and legacy of one of photography's most influential image-makers through iconic and previously unpublished works, paired with incisive essays. His lens shaped how we see fashion, celebrity, and the human body.

Largely self-taught and rooted in Los Angles, Ritts developed a signature style, one that often made use of the California light and landscape which helped to separate his work from his New York-based peers. From the late 1970s until his untimely death from AIDS in 2002, he bridged fine art and commercial photography, collaborating with leading fashion designers and magazine editors while redefining visual culture in the post-Pop era.

• Examines the confluence of art, commerce, and celebrity culture in late twentieth-century photography.
• Positions Ritts among other photographers noted for artfully capturing the male nude like Edward Weston, Bruce Weber, and Robert Mapplethorpe, among others.
• Features a large selection of photographs spanning Ritts's entire career.

Within these pages, you'll be seduced by an artist who transformed photography into timeless glamour. This compelling volume is for lovers of fashion, art, and cultural history.

Author Biography

Paul Martineau is curator in the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He is the author of Rodney Smith (Getty, 2023), Imogen Cunningham (Getty, 2020), and Icons of Style (Getty, 2018).

James Crump is chief curator and curator of photography at the Cincinnati Art Museum. In 2007, Crump wrote, produced, and directed the documentary film Black White + Gray, featuring the influential curator and collector Sam Wagstaff and artist Robert Mapplethorpe.