Jonathan BeckerJulian Schnabel at his Outdoor Studio, Montauk, New York, 13 August 20012020
2020
About the Item
- Creator:Jonathan Becker (1954, American)
- Creation Year:2020
- Dimensions:Height: 14 in (35.56 cm)Width: 14 in (35.56 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:
Jonathan Becker
With a style at once impactful, reflective and irreverent, photographer Jonathan Becker belongs more to the artistic than the documentarian realm, masterfully capturing a theatrical sense of the unexpected as he offers glimpses into rarefied worlds.
Bea Feitler — the late, legendary artistic director responsible for vamping up Harper’s Bazaar and Rolling Stone in the 1960s and ’70s — gave Becker his first big break, in 1981, when she asked him to submit images for the relaunch of Vanity Fair.
Becker, who was 26 at the time, had already been the first Paris-based photographer for W magazine and had forged a close friendship with French-Hungarian Surrealist photographer Brassaï, who was then in his 70s. By this age, too, Becker had also developed an enviable reputation as a portrait photographer working on Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine and alongside Slim Aarons and Norman Parkinson at Town & Country, although he knew not to step on his famous colleagues’ toes. “I was a young little interloper,” he says. “I learned more by listening and watching those giants than by trying to engage in any direct interactions with them.”
The young photographer, who was moonlighting at the time as a New York City cab driver, hadn’t dreamed that the project would put his pictures on an equal footing with those of legends of the medium: Also contributing to this debut edition were some of photography’s most revered names, including Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton, as well as rising star Annie Leibovitz, whose popularity had recently skyrocketed, thanks to her Rolling Stone cover picture of a naked John Lennon curled up alongside a fully clothed Yoko Ono.
That issue was a game changer in modern magazine publishing, with Vanity Fair setting the bar for engaging editorial and daring design for decades to come. It also signaled the making of a man: Becker’s talent for visual storytelling shone through in his avant-gardist tribute, and the magazine’s creative team kept him on, marking the start of his long career there.
As a regular Vanity Fair contributor, Becker operated in the highest echelons of society, traveling the world and immortalizing countless A-list movers, shakers and thinkers from the fields of fashion, culture and politics, not to mention royalty.
Becker's unconventional way of directing his eye is clearly instinctual, resulting in an unusual aesthetic that mixes perception, myth and reality in equal measure. This balance is most apparent in his famous black-and-white picture of Robert Mapplethorpe, taken in 1988 at the opening of Mapplethorpe’s retrospective exhibition at the Whitney, when the famed photographer was dying of AIDS. It is a group shot, showing various figures at different angles, in which Mapplethorpe, caught in profile and listening intently to a woman kneeling beside him, seems to stop time. The moment is heavy with emotion and also dreamlike. It is ineffably surreal.
Becker has given us Stephen King as a cross-eyed zombie (1980); Dustin Hoffman as a mischief maker, lounging on a stack of sun loungers at the Beverly Hills Hotel (2004); and Diana Vreeland as an aging Raphaelesque Madonna dressed in a voluminous black gown and sitting cross-legged in her famous red-clad living room at 550 Park Avenue (1979). The photographer, a lover of spontaneity who deftly plays with perspectives, keeps us intrigued with his open-ended narratives.
Find a collection of Jonathan Becker photography on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- Martha Graham with Madonna & Calvin Klein at New York City Center, October 1990By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYMartha Graham at New York City Center after her final onstage bow - backstage with Madonna and Calvin Klein, October 1990 "Martha was my godmother, and she was posing." - JB Photog...Category
1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- Emma in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, April 1984By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYEmma in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, 1984 Pão de Açucar, (Sugarloaf Mountain), Rio’s defining landmark looms in the background. Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 14" x 14.5...Category
1980s Contemporary Portrait Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- Jean-Paul Goude & Toukie Smith in NYC Subway, 1976By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYJean-Paul Goude & Toukie Smith in NYC Subway, 1976 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 14" x 14.5" Platinum/Palladium Print Edition Nº 1 of 6 Ce...Category
1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- Elaine's Kitchen - Andy Warhol and Elaine, New York, 1976By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYElaine's Kitchen - Andy Warhol and Elaine, New York, 1976 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 14" x 14.5" Platinum & Palladium Print Edition Nº 1 of 3 Certificate of Origin Signed and Titled by the Photographer in Edition and Emboss-stamped in the Margin/Recto Printing & Edition Notes along with Copyright Stamp and Applicable Providence on Verso Printed by hand at the photographer's studio in the traditional Platinum & Palladium process on 100% cotton rag paper. Platinum & Palladium prints are known for their unrivaled longevity and unparalleled subtlety. Print cost includes wrapping/packing/crating for shipment in double-tubing. ______ Jonathan Becker (Steven Kasher Gallery bio by Mark Rozzo) Literate flair, acute visual intuition, love of mischief and spontaneity, and global wanderlust: These are among the hallmarks of the work of Jonathan Becker, whose photography spans four decades and includes iconic portraits (often for Vanity Fair) of a multiplicity of subjects, including Robert Mapplethorpe, Martha Graham, Madonna, Elia Kazan, Prince Charles, Eudora Welty, André Leon Talley, Ai Weiwei, Diana Vreeland and Jack Kevorkian. Becker - whose work was first published in Andy Warhol’s Interview in 1973 - was born in 1954 and raised in New York City. In the mid-1970s, he moved for a year to Paris, where he was mentored by his hero, Brassaï. Upon return to New York, Becker drove a cab, toting his camera and parking to complete magazine assignments. A 1981 exhibition of Becker’s work at New York’s Rentschler Gallery included a series of arresting images of patrons taken inside the kitchen at Elaine’s, the storied hangout on New York’s Upper East Side. This exhibition, curated by art director Bea Feitler brought Becker to the attention of Frank Zachary, editor-in-chief of Town & Country. Zachary invited Becker to work for the magazine, where the young photographer further developed his passion for journalistic portraiture alongside Slim Aarons, who, after Brassaï, became Becker’s guiding light. Becker was then enlisted by Bea Feitler to contribute portraits to the prototype of Vanity Fair’s 1983 re-launch. His participation led to a highly prolific association with the magazine as Contributing Photographer, continuing to this day. Becker has also contributed portraits and reportage to The New Yorker, Vogue, W, The Paris Review, amongst truly most major publications. In complement to his editorial work, Becker has accepted a limited number of private and family portrait commissions each year, some accompanied by privately published books, and in the course of his three-years-long project for the Rockefeller Foundation, Becker documented its vast array of philanthropic grant recipients on four continents abroad. Six trade books comprised entirely of Becker’s photographs have been published including Bright Young Things...Category
1970s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- Diana Vreeland at home, 550 Park Avenue, New York, 21 July 1979By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYDiana Vreeland at home, 550 Park Avenue, New York, 21 July 1979 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 44" x 44.5" Archival Pigment Print Edition Nº 1 of 9 Certificate of Orig...Category
1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Ai Weiwei in his studio, Beijing, 12 May 2007By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYAi Weiwei in his studio, Beijing, 12 May 2007 X Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 44" x 44.5" Archival Pigment Print Edition Nº 1 of 9 Certificate of Origin Signed and ...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Lioness Holding Cub in Mouth, Maasai Mara – Nick Brandt, Lion, Africa, AnimalsBy Nick BrandtLocated in Zurich, CHNICK BRANDT (*1966, England) Lioness with Cub in Mouth, Amboseli 2012 Platinum print Sheet 71,12 x 88,9 cm (28 x 35 in.) Edition of 15, plus AP's; Ed. no. 2/15 print only Nick Brandt is a contemporary English photographer. His work focuses on the disappearing natural world. Since 2001, he has photographed the changing African continent and established a style of portrait photography of animals in the wild. – Photography, Documentary Photography, Animal, Africa, Wildlife, Nature, Lion Baby...Category
2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- Sitting Lionesses, Serengeti 2002By Nick BrandtLocated in Sante Fe, NMNick's exquisite photographs arouse deep emotions. They inspire a sense of awe at the beauty of creation and the sacredness of life. It's almost impossible to look through his work without sensing the personalities of the beings whom he has photographed. JANE GOODALL...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- AmeraucanaBy Beth MoonLocated in Sante Fe, NMAll photographs are platinum/palladium prints. These metals are hand coated on 100% rag cotton water color paper with natural deckled edges and contact printed. Since platinum, like ...Category
2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- Belgian Bearded D'AnversBy Beth MoonLocated in Sante Fe, NMAll photographs are platinum/palladium prints. These metals are hand coated on 100% rag cotton water color paper with natural deckled edges and contact printed. Since platinum, like ...Category
2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- AsilBy Beth MoonLocated in Sante Fe, NMAll photographs are platinum/palladium prints. These metals are hand coated on 100% rag cotton water color paper with natural deckled edges and contact printed. Since platinum, like ...Category
2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsPlatinum
- Blue AndalusianBy Beth MoonLocated in Sante Fe, NMAll photographs are platinum/palladium prints. These metals are hand coated on 100% rag cotton water color paper with natural deckled edges and contact printed. Since platinum, like ...Category
2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography
MaterialsPlatinum