On this day in 2002

[Starman]

They're not at all. They're fashion photographers. Ritz was a portrait photographer essentially. They're more in line with Meisel.

I agree

Ritts could really capture her personality

also i feel that most of M&M photos are like "lets shoot this person in a way that she/he can look nothing like her/himself"

not only Madonna but all their celebrities

[Nessie]

I wanna see Madonna with this amazing look once again!

[jacket]

Fantastic photos from that year. So stylish and chic. M's face was divine.

Photoshoots now a days seem so heavily reliant on overt sexiness. These ones are just effortlessly sexy cool.

[Nessie]

I remember the media calling her the "mechanical girl" regarding her acting

[LikeAPrayer]

I go back and forth with this era, it never really seemed like she was having much fun back then to me.

The early 00's were a bit of a strange time to be a Madonna fan with the tracksuits, the devout Kaballahism, the children's books, the English countryside semi-living, the hanging out in pubs, etc. It's just amazing to see how much she's seemed to change since then.

[ryan]

I love that on some occasions she wore that outfit underneath her coat:

Good eye Nessie!

[johndvd25]

Not a fan of the VF cover.... Die another day was a radio hit in my country! The video is fierce! One of my faves. For me its one of her last great videos together with american life, until GGW vid came along.

[peter]

i still can't believe these weren't used

I know, right?! Crazy! Especially this one. It's one of my faves ever. And the one below ... it was used in the ICON "book" Nobody Knows Me, but ... still relatively obscure. Can't understand why it wouldn't have been published properly anywhere. There's another outtake of her face with netting ... b&w ... from this McDean shoot. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[Mad_On_Her]

this was the start of the period when Madonna became so fucking boring. the clothes, hair attitude everything. the only saving grace was the American Life album