Herb Ritts



    Herbert (Herb) Ritts was a famous portrait photographer who focused his artwork on black-and-white photography. Ritts' big break came while attending college in Los Angeles, CA, where a friend of his took an interest in acting, drawing Ritts to photograph the star. The star's publicity drew publicity to Ritts allowing him to take photography seriously and eventually do shoots for stars in magazines such as Madonna. 

    To me, a good portrait should have an underlying message or story. I believe that portraits are more than just photos of people. They should make any viewer feel something. For example, the image above gives me a supervillain story vibe. The model's facial expression and the metal fingers tells a story of a crazed villain in my eyes. 


My personal favorite portrait was the above photo. I enjoy portraits involving black people due to the color of their skin seeming like an emphasis even though it may not be the main focus. Ritts did a good job on showing skin tones. Additionally, the pose is interesting to me as I can see the model both sitting and standing. I would love to mimic the storytelling aspect of his work alongside the images of black people. 

 

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