But those who watched Ritts’ work over the years are not surprised that collectors want to own his pictures, which don’t come cheap: Prices can range from $40,000 up to $125,000. “His photographs are in a class of their own,” said lang. “You can just recognize a Herb Ritts photo from, you know, ten paces.” k.d. lang and Ritts collaborated on a Vanity Fair cover which made a big splash in the summer of 1993. “Where’d the idea come from?” asked Braver. “I just wanted to do something in a barber’s chair,” Lang replied. “Oh, he goes, that’s great. And then he calls me and he goes, ‘I’m gonna ask Cindy.'” “I’m like … ‘Cindy!'” lang laughed. “He said, ‘Can you come to the studio? I’m shooting kd lang and I wanna use you as a prop,'” Crawford recalled. “And I had that kind of relationship with Herb where I was like ‘OK,’ you know? “I thought Herb nailed it. And it became one of those images that people will always remember.” There are many Herb Ritts photos that people will always remember. Some of his most beautiful are not your typical glamour shots. Churchward described Ritts’ month-long trip to Africa where he got Massai warriors to be “fashion icons.” “They were having a great time,” Churchward laughed. “And the fact is that he wanted to prove that he could use his eye anywhere.” Ritts learned in 1989 that he had AIDS, but he worked up until the very end. His last shoot was of Ben Affleck for Vanity Fair. One last photograph by a man who never stopped trying to top himself. “What do you think we missed by not seeing him mature as a photographer?” Braver asked lang. “He put everything, a lifetime of knowledge and wisdom and his eye for art into that short amount of years,” she said. “Who knows what the plan is … but I can only imagine what his photos would have been like.” For more info: •  Herb Ritts Foundation