Found treasure: a year after his death, a visionary photographer still calls the shots

A few months before his death last December at age 50, photographer Herb Ritts approached Interview about shooting an up-and-coming actor named Eric Balfour. With more than two decades of iconic, unforgettable imagery to his credit, Ritts had an uncanny knack for picking faces from a crowd. The Interview editors took him up on his offer, and the photographs, shown here--taken in Los Angeles in October 2002--prove once again that Ritts was spot-on.

And boy, could he call 'em. Balfour recently starred in the big-screen reimagining of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which broke the bank its opening weekend. "Life was easy when people used to say, 'Hey, you're that guy from Six Feet Under,'" says Balfour, a sometime guest performer on the hit HBO drama, who also had a short run on Fox's 24. "But now they're starting to go, 'Hey, you're Eric Balfour,' and that's weird." Thanks for the tip, Herb.

Richard Dorment is an editorial assistant for Interview.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc.
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