Ritts, Herb

1952 – He was born this year in Los Angeles, California to a prosperous family who owned a furniture business.

1974 – He received an economics degree from Bard College in upstate New York and soon after returned to Los Angeles to work as a sales representative for his family’s business.

1980 – Throughout this year until 1990, he worked with magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Vogue on portraits of famous people and artistic photos of models.

1981 – He took photos for the album cover of Olivia Newton-John’s Physical.

1984 – He started his long-term collaboration with Madonna this year, when he shot the ad for her movie Desperately Seeking Susan.

1986 – He shot the cover photo of Madonna’s True Blue album. He later ventured into the world of music video at a suggestion of Madonna and filmed her video “Cherish”.

1989 – He photographed Belinda Carlisle for her Runaway Horses album.

1998 – He photographed Cindy Crawford for this year’s October issue of Playboy.

2002 – He died in Los Angeles from pneumonia-related complications. Reports state that he was HIV-positive but that was not the cause of death. He left behind his partner Erik Hyman.