Herb Ritts
Jack Nicholson
Background History about the Portrait
This photo is famous because it is of Jack Nicholson, One of the biggest name actors at the time and in an interview Herb once said on the photo "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." This photograph was taken in a studio.
What can we learn from this Portrait and the photographer?
The style of this image is Humor in my eyes, it is taking what might be just another portrait image with another photographer and made it fun. Especially with the model. At the time Jack Nicholson was mainly portrayed as the "Bad Guy" in most works and in this particular image he looks like the funny guy for once.
As said in the earlier quote The magnifying glass effect was on accident. So sometimes the perfect thing comes along on accident. Even though Herb had a different plan coming into the shoot he left with the best picture he could have gotten.
My opinion
I love the portrait as Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite actors. This portrait is unique because it makes jack look fun and loving which he is. Not dark as scary as portrayed in movies such as batman and the shining.
I feel Herb caught his personality perfectly. Ive seen many interviews with Jack and he is always a easy going guy and the close up on his smile just implies that he is a funny guy. Not just a bad guy