Celebrity photographer Herb Ritts died last Friday at the age of 50. He was best known for his poignant black and white photography of people, from “pop culture icons to world leaders.” The Museum Of Fine Arts in Boston is currently exhibiting his work, and the MetaFilter discussion or a Google search on his work yield numerous online galleries and links. Ritts saw his photography as art transcending the subject matter; I tend to agree with his assessment and legacy:
Fifty or 60 years from now, if someone sees a portrait of Madonna, they really won’t care that it was Madonna or they won’t know who the hell she was. But it’ll hold up as a portrait of an interesting woman you want to know. You feel her. There’s something coming from it.