I received the Herb Ritts retrospective The Golden Hour (RIzzoli) for Christmas. It's a must-have for fans of the late shutterbug's influential work, and for Madonna fans we already know it provides the previously unseen first portrait he ever took of her.

Overall, it's a wonderful but somewhat frustrating work. "Wonderful" because it has all of his most classic images and many surprises, "somewhat frustrating" because some of the most interesting items—like candids from behind-the-scenes of his shoots—are reproduced at postage-stamp size, like this hard-to-appreciate image of Madonna:

Still, there are some amazing inclusions. I loved these shots of Madonna partying with her posse, even if the book somehow manages to provide the obviously incorrect date of 1994 (more like '91):

This one is flawless! The beer is JUST about to hit the peroxide!

The book is arranged as a series of free-flowing quotes from everyone who's ever known or worked with Ritts, making it hard to flip through; it's probably better to simply sit and read the thing in its entirety, unless all you care about is the visual. Which, in his case, is hardly a flaw.