Theme 1 - Herb Ritts

Herb Ritts started his photographic career in the 1970's and gained a good reputation as a master of art and commercial photography. He not only produced images for Vanity Fair and Vogue, but also lead advertising campaigns for Calvin Klien, Chanel, Donna Karan and Gap.

The image of Drew Barrymore is full of soft tones and shades. It appears to have been lit from behind, creating a shadow accross the entire face, however, a light has been used to soften these shadows. The light behind is much brighter than that on the front, creating a stark contrast highlights, where there would normally be shadows.

The next portrait has been shot as a profile. The shallow depth of field, draws the eye directly to the face.  The profile contains a variation of shapes, tones and light. The dark skin appears flawless. It is thought provoking image as it makes you wonder what the subject is thinking.

The image below this is that of an athlete. I love the way Ritts has deliberately cropped off the top half of the subject, but she can been seen in full as a shadow. It is a wonderful way to capture movement, strength and determination in the subject.

Theme 1 - Other inflences

Once you consider the issue of 'cross dressing' the boundaries disappear and your can have complete creative freedom over the types of images you want to create. The following images are by a very famous and main stream photographer  - Annie Leibovitz and were published in a very famous and main stream magazine....'Vanity Fair'.





Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz was born in 1949 in Connecticut, USA and originally studied art and painting in the San Francisco Art Institute. After travelling with her family to Japan, she finally discovered photography and started taking night classes. Leibovitz got into the 'big time' when she approached the editor of rolling stone magazine and 1970 and showed her, her portfolio of images. By 1973 she was the chief photographer for rolling stone magazine.

The magazine started printing in colour in 1974 and Leibovitz followed suit with her photographs. Originally she was only ever taught how to take black and white pictures, so in 1974 when rolling stone magazine was printing in colour, she followed suit by taking colour images for the likes of Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Patti smith. in 1975 she was the rolling stones official photographer and went on world tour with them. while on the road, she produced her iconic black and white portraits of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

In 1980 Rolling stone magazine was sent to photograph John Lennon and Yoko Ono who had recently produced a joint album. For the portrait she imagined that the two would pose together nude, however, Ono was not happy with this and it was only Lennon who was prepared to disrobe. after taking a Polaroid of the portrait, she knew that it was an amazing image.

 Several hours later, Lennon was shot dead in front of his apartment. in 2005, the American Society of magazine editors named it the best magazine cover from the past 40 years.


In 1983 Leibovitz joined Vanity Fair and was made the magazines first contributing photographer. At Vanity Fair she became known for her wildly lit, staged, and provocative portraits of celebrities. One of the most famous is Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bath of milk.

Apparently, this image was a mistake (as stated in Annie Leibovitz 'at work') as Whoopie slipped and Leibovitz just managed to capture the moment before Whoopie was completely submerged! I think that the image is fantastic, with a wonderful humorous element and obvious contrast between Whoppies dark skin and the white milk of the bath. It truly captures Whoopies personality.

The following image of Martina Navratilova is intriguing. It portrays a masculine athletic woman moving a huge cog.

The use of light has created and image that contains clear definitionn of different tones and shapes. I love the way the light defines both the strength of the cog and the strength of Martina's arms and legs. It may portray the challenge Martina had with the Media at the height of her career in the 80's and 90's.