Herb Ritts, 'Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi.' Estimate $60,000–90,000.
“We’re crammed into this 5 foot space that’s why were so close together. I’m sure they had clothes there. But often with Herb there were clothes there and then you ended up not wearing them. I think like any good relationship you have trust and that’s why I was able to do things with Herb that I wouldn’t probably have done with other people. I didn’t have to protect myself because I knew Herb was protecting me.” –Cindy Crawford on the making of this image, created for the cover of Rolling Stone
Herb Ritts, 'Michelle Pfeiffer.' Estimate $5,000–7,000.
“Michelle can be as sexy as can be as a character in a movie, but in real life she would rather be wearing a pair of jeans. It’s like tooth and nail trying to get her into a dress. This was a shoot for American Vogue, where she wanted to do a pictorial spread, no interviews, and something where she wasn’t Michelle. So I came up with this idea where she’d play theatrical characters. One was a man, Lawrence from Noël Coward’s Private Lives…to do that nonverbally that quickly for a still photograph was fantastic. And I really saw that this woman was really a true actress. No rehearsal, nothing.” –Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts, 'Kim Basinger.' Estimate $6,000–9,000.
“Kim Basinger would rather run around in her birthday suit than most actresses in Bob Mackie. She is completely comfortable with herself.” –Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts, Selected Images (A group of 5 photographs, comprising 'Tina Turner,' 'Mel Gibson,' 'Willem Dafoe,' 'Isabella Rossellini,' and 'Sean Connery,') Estimate $12,000–18,000.
“A funny thing about the Sean Connery shoot is that a half year later I was talking to my mom, who, while she is always interested in what I’m doing, could take or leave 90 percent of the people I shoot. But the minute I happened to mention Sean Connery, she almost strangled me on the spot because I hadn’t invited her to the studio for lunch that day, which I often do.” –Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts, 'k. d. Lang and Cindy Crawford, Los Angeles.' Estimate $6,000–9,000.
“I thought Herb nailed it. And it became one of those images that people will always remember." –K.D. Lang
Herb Ritts, 'Jack Nicholson.' Estimate $5,000–7,000.
“With Nicholson, for instance, what the magnifying glass did, quite by accident, was make even more of a caricature of him. He’s such a larger-than-life person, anyway, that if you magnify the one thing, his smile, his grin, it makes for even more of an impact.” –Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts, 'Kate Moss 3, Malibu.' Estimate $8,000–12,000.
Herb Ritts, 'Denzel Washington.' Estimate $5,000–7,000.
“These modern actors have almost an unglamorous glamour. Denzel Washington has sheer intensity.” –Herb Ritts
Herb Ritts, 'Christy Turlington.' Estimate $15,000–25,000.
Herb Ritts, 'Richard Gere.' Estimate $7,000–10,000.
“We were just shooting, having fun. But it's actually a complex photo with the juxtaposition of hard and soft and different angles. There's a very real reason why Herb was on top of everyone's list of still photographers. He captured something in his subjects – an essential quality. We recognize ourselves. He had a warmth in his photographs that everyone liked.” –Richard Gere
As a photographer of celebrities, Herb Ritts became a celebrity in his own right. His intimate, genuine portraits remain a cornerstone of his oeuvre. “It’s not the celebrity quality of the person that makes the photograph interesting. It’s letting the true person through that makes the photograph interesting and lasting,” said Ritts in conversation with Simone Ellis (‘Puttin on the Ritts,’ Santa Fe New Mexican, 28 June 1991, p. 5). Click ahead to discover the stories behind some of his most iconic images coming to auction this October.