'Herb Ritts: L.A. Style'

Legendary Los Angeles photographer Herb Ritts is renowned for his stunningly dramatic black and white portraits that enhance the human form. Bridging the gap between art, popular culture and commerce, Ritts became famous for his fashion and celebrity photography through the 1980s and ’90s, having made himself indispensable to designers like Armani, Calvin Klein, Valentino, and Versace. In 'Herb Ritts: L.A. Style' Paul Martineau traces the rare and remarkable life and career of this extraordinary artist until his untimely death from AIDS in 2002. Through a selection of celebrated and previously unpublished photographs and insightful essays, Getty Publications presents this striking monograph, which celebrates how Ritts set himself apart from his New York–based peers with his distinctive aesthetic, partly informed by the style of classical Greek sculpture and frequent use of the California light and landscape.