Herb Ritts " The Golden Hour "

Herbert "Herb" Ritts (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002) was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits in the style of classical Greek sculpture. Consequently some of his more famous pieces are of male and female nudes in what can be called glamour photography.


The Golden Hour, A Photographer's Life and His World reveals for the first time the personal aspects of Ritts’s world, work, and legacy. The book includes many never-before-seen photographs and scores of interviews from business associates, curators, staff, lovers, and family, such as Cindy Crawford, Elton John, Anna Wintour, Madonna, Calvin Klein, and Christopher Buckley (Ritts’s college roommate). The Golden Hour also includes images from Ritts’s personal archive—behind the scenes at photo shoots, parties, travels, intimate portraits, and moments with friends—along with notes and contact sheets that show how ideas became his best-known iconic images.


Introduction from Richard Gere.
....... Maybe this book is part of that good-bye. Herb was a superior person. A bit of a prince. A complex and compelling man and a dear friend. He was delicate, smart, loyal, tender, funny, forgiving, demanding, lost, rock solid, a total professional, a manipulator, an artist, a sweetheart, a lover of beauty, a knower of beauty, an encourager of beauty, a creator of beauty.....

The book cover

Richard Gere, San Bernardino, Ca, 1978

Fred with Tires, Hollywood, Ca, 1984

Woman in Sea, Hawaii, 1988

Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood, 1989

Kim Basinger, Los Angeles, 1989

Versace dress, El Mirage, Ca, 1990

Herb and a soaking-wet Julia Roberts between shots, Malibu, Ca 1990

Mel Gibson, Hollywood, 1985

All photographs are from the book Herb Ritts " The Golden Hour."

Photographs by Herb Ritts@Herb Ritts Foundation

Courtesy Herb Ritts Foundation Archives

Courtesy Rizzoli