Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood, 1989, Herb Ritts, gelatin silver print
Gift of Herb Ritts Foundation. © Herb Ritts Foundation
Transcript
CINDY CRAWFORD: I just call this image naked twister, because I think it’s funny. [laughs]
[soft dreamy music evoking period and mood]
MALE NARRATOR: Herb Ritts created this image for the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, and it became a sensation. Not only did he photograph five supermodels in the same place at the same time naked, but he captured something more. The image is not just sexy, but intimate. The models’ expressions are delicate and vulnerable. Their tangle of bodies is unexpectedly tender. Cindy Crawford remembers the shoot from that day:
CINDY CRAWFORD: We’re at Herb’s house, this is a tiny, tiny little––not even terrace––like an outdoor hallway. Naomi’s probably almost touching the house. Stephanie, is obviously, almost touching the wall on the left. We’re crammed in like this five-foot space. That’s why we’re so close together. I’m sure they had clothes there, but often with Herb, there were clothes there and 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. He always had great hair and makeup people. He always had a great team, really felt like a team, everyone was working together to create this incredible image. Normally, you would get a sense of the people vying for position, or one trying to be sexier than the other, and here everyone just feels super comfortable. Maybe that’s one of the advantages of working with a gay photographer when you’re doing these kind of pictures, is that you know he’s not looking at it in a lascivious way. What he loved about a woman’s body were the lines and the curves and the sensuality of it. Good photographers––and Herb certainly was one of the best––they let models, model. It drives me crazy today when I work a photographer and they don’t even give me a chance. So many times these photographs are about what happens next; where were you going or what unfolds? I definitely think that the way Herb photograph women was super sexy, but you looked like you. Again, your best self. That’s what he saw. And when you see that, you also bring that out in people.
[music ends]