Herb Ritts The Golden Hour ─ A Photographer's Life and His World

The definitive book on the life of the legendary photographer Herb Ritts, with never-before-seen images and interviews with his closest confidants. At the time of his death in 2002, Herb Ritts was among the most celebrated photographers in celebrity portraiture, fashion, and music videos. During a career that spanned nearly thirty years, he was virtually in a league of his own in terms of style and productivity. Ritts was Hollywood royalty, as were his closest friends and the subjects he photographed. The Golden Hour 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 book 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.

Herb Ritts’s career began in the late 1970s, and he quickly gained a reputation as a master of art and commercial photography. In addition to portrait and fashion work for Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone, he created campaigns for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Versace, and Valentino, among others.

Charles Churchward is an accomplished art director who had been associated with top magazines since 1971, such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Teen Vogue. He also edits and designs books, advertisements, and photo exhibitions.

David Fahey, gallery director, has been a fine art photography dealer in Los Angeles since 1975.