Art or Pornography?

"Photographer Herb Ritts, whose access to celebrities, even at their most fragile moments, gave him an edge in a competitive field, died Thursday Dec. 26 of complications of pneumonia, his publicist said. He was 50.

"Ritts -- whose stylish, mostly black-and-white portraits helped define the image-conscious 1980s and '90s -- died at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, publicist Stephen Huvane said.

"Ritts shot celebrities from Madonna to Michelle Pfeiffer to Dizzy Gillespie for top fashion and culture magazines -- Interview, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Elle. When Elizabeth Taylor married construction worker Larry Fortensky in 1991, Ritts had exclusive rights to photograph her eighth trip down the aisle.

"He showed Madonna grabbing her crotch, Cindy Crawford dressed as a man, Annette Bening pregnant and lounging on a couch."


12/27/2002:
"Photographer Herb Ritts, whose access to celebrities, even at their most fragile moments, gave him an edge in a competitive field, died Thursday Dec. 26 of complications of pneumonia, his publicist said. He was 50. "Ritts -- whose stylish, mostly black-and-white portraits helped define the image-conscious 1980s and '90s -- died at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, publicist Stephen Huvane said. "Ritts shot celebrities from Madonna to Michelle Pfeiffer to Dizzy Gillespie for top fashion and culture magazines -- Interview, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Elle. When Elizabeth Taylor married construction worker Larry Fortensky in 1991, Ritts had exclusive rights to photograph her eighth trip down the aisle. "He showed Madonna grabbing her crotch, Cindy Crawford dressed as a man, Annette Bening pregnant and lounging on a couch."
(More Herb Ritts in the AoP archive!: 4/18/02, 4/29/02, 5/9/02, and 9/27/02)