Work
Little, Brown and Company / Bulfinch Press
Essay by Trevor Fairbrother; Writings by Richard Martin, Ingrid Sischy, Steven Meisel
1996

This landmark retrospective presents the full range of Ritts' work for the first time: 235 signature images in all, including many that have never before been published. In these pages one finds the most unforgettable portraits, from Ritts' images of celebrated world leaders (Reagan, Mandela, Gorbachev) to visual artists (David Hockney, Keith Haring, Agnes Martin), musicians (Bruce Springsteen, Dizzy Gillespie, Aretha Franklin), and sports figures (Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan). And of course there are Hollywood's brightest stars—Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Cruise, Sophia Loren, Glenn Close, Madonna—captured in moments of startling candor and whimsy. In addition to portraiture, there is a brilliant array of fashion shots, erotic nudes, and gorgeous images from Africa which together affirm Ritts' place in photography's pantheon of greats.

From Bulfinch Press

Africa
Little, Brown and Company/ Bulfinch Press
Foreword by Judith Jamison
1994

The 75 black-and-white images from the book make a surprisingly personal statement. Without the distractions of celebrity, Ritts was able to plainly reveal his visual priorities and emotional concerns. In such an ancient land, he captured the unceasing cycles of life and death, beauty and ferocity. This travelogue explores artistic goals as much as it does a place: that's fine territory for Ritts.

By David Schonauer, American Photo

Notorious
Little, Brown and Company/ Bulfinch Press
Author's comments edited by Ingrid Sischy
1992

This stylish oversize volume gives Herb Ritts' stark in your-face celebrity portraits plenty of breathing room. There are striking black-and-white shots of Michelle Pfeiffer in male drag, Clint Eastwood doing a Stan Laurel impersonation, Sean Penn taking a tinkle on a dirt road, and that famous Interview magazine cover of Madonna grabbing her crotch. The book also has an appendix in which Herb Ritts recounts the details of his shoots.

From Entertainment Weekly

Duo
Twin Palms Publishers
1991

"Duo" features 50 photographs of two male bodybuilders who are also lovers. If anyone can pull off this daring work, it's Ritts, who has thoroughly mastered the art of making controversy a selling point. The photographs are clearly meant to be shocking, yet they aren't confrontational in the way that Robert Mapplethorpe's were. They are more about beauty, a classical notion of physical and spiritual perfection. Ritts takes this notion to its outer bounds: he poses the men in a variety of sites and situations, separately and together, clothed and unclothed. Although the pictures aren't graphic; they do make full use of the photographer's arsenal of allure. In his framing and lighting, Ritts creates the kind of erotic tableaux that are so familiar in his pictures of female stars such as Madonna and Janet Jackson. The photographs manage to be cool and hot at the same time, distanced and empathetic.

Men/Women
Twin Palms Publishers
1989

This boxed set of two books contains images selected by Herb Ritts from the first decade of his work in photography. Many of the pictures were rejected for publication in popular magazines which judged them either too eccentric or too erotic for their readers. The pleasure of the artist at work is felt in these photographs, which do not compromise the artist's individual vision for the sake of popular acceptance. The beautiful men and women who populate these pages are familiar for their work in commercial modeling, but Herb Ritts' camera shows them in a new and unfamiliar light.

From Twin Palms Publishers