"I like form and shape and strength in pictures"
About this Quote
A lot of photographers talk about “capturing moments.” Herb Ritts is telling you he’s building them. “I like form and shape and strength in pictures” is a clean, almost blunt declaration of priorities: the image isn’t a diary entry, it’s an object with architecture. Form and shape point to a sculptor’s eye - bodies as geometry, light as a carving tool, negative space as design rather than accident. Then he lands on “strength,” a word that shifts the line from aesthetics to attitude. This isn’t just about pleasing composition; it’s about presence, about a subject occupying the frame with authority.
The subtext is classic Ritts: glamour without fuss, sensuality without mess. His portraits and nudes often feel sun-baked and stripped down, as if Los Angeles light itself has edited out narrative clutter. By foregrounding structure, he also sidesteps the confessional mode that dominated so much late-20th-century photography. The emotional content, in a Ritts image, often arrives through control: the taut line of a shoulder, the tension in a pose, the polished clarity that makes the body read like monument instead of vulnerability.
Context matters: Ritts helped define an era when celebrity imagery became both more ubiquitous and more stylized, when magazines needed pictures that could survive endless reproduction and still hit with impact. “Form and shape and strength” is an editorial survival strategy. Make it bold enough to become iconic. Make it simple enough to be remembered. Make it strong enough to sell the fantasy while pretending it’s just good light.
The subtext is classic Ritts: glamour without fuss, sensuality without mess. His portraits and nudes often feel sun-baked and stripped down, as if Los Angeles light itself has edited out narrative clutter. By foregrounding structure, he also sidesteps the confessional mode that dominated so much late-20th-century photography. The emotional content, in a Ritts image, often arrives through control: the taut line of a shoulder, the tension in a pose, the polished clarity that makes the body read like monument instead of vulnerability.
Context matters: Ritts helped define an era when celebrity imagery became both more ubiquitous and more stylized, when magazines needed pictures that could survive endless reproduction and still hit with impact. “Form and shape and strength” is an editorial survival strategy. Make it bold enough to become iconic. Make it simple enough to be remembered. Make it strong enough to sell the fantasy while pretending it’s just good light.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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