Herb Ritts

Herb Ritt's main focus in his photography is on human beings and the body. Nude photographs are fairly common in his work and he will use objects to help emphasis the human form. He also has a number of photographs focusing on the subject's face. He has very few photos that primarily feature animals so they feel a tad out of place alongside the rest of his work. The majority of his photographs are also in black and white with a smaller portion of the total work being in color.

His photographs are very intentionally framed and directed. While none of them looked particularly forced they were very deliberately framed. That's not a bad thing since this is a professional-level photographer. He takes care of how they're presented making sure only the negatives are in view, he doesn't go for the haphazard presentation. When his photographs have more than one figure he has a tendency to group them in close proximity.

 I'm not really sure how I feel about Ritt's work, I definitely don't hate it. I'd say that I find a lot his work intriguing, I'd say I prefer his black and white photos over the colored ones, but the subject for the black and white ones tend to be more varied so that's a bit unfair. The way he groups people up in really interesting to me. I also tend to dislike most nude photography but Ritt's more tolerable I guess. I'd say it's probably because of how it's used compared to a lot of other photographers I've seen.

Ralph Gibson

 Ralph Gibson's photographs don't share a specific themes like the other photographers that we looked at. However he does do a considerable amount of close up shots. He has a tendency to cut out small scenes from larger scenes. These scenes usually give enough context to piece together the larger picture. His photographs also tend to be very people oriented. With the ones lacking any human presence feeling odd and empty.

The shots all have good compositions. Most of the shots are deliberate and were taken after careful consideration and set up. While most of them are controlled there are a few that seem like they were taken spur of the moment. Those pictures seems to capture the lives of people that he saw as he was going about his day. For the most part they don't seem to knowledge that they're being photographed.

I can't say I feel any particular attachment to Gibson's photographs. I don't consider them bad but there aren't any that stand out to me in anyway. He clearly has skill that got him the place he has, but I wouldn't rush to see his work. I would say on average I like the pictures that show more than a small snippet of what's happening. So I guess I like his more casual photos than his more artsy ones.