Wm. Pène du Bois’s Rolls Royce, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, June 1993
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Jonathan BeckerWm. Pène du Bois’s Rolls Royce, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, June 19932020
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:Seller: 1993.016.XX – 1/61stDibs: LU139326927992
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.
- Bunny Lambert Mellon’s gardens, Upperville, Virginia, 1 June 2010By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYAt Oak Spring Farm, Bunny Lambert Mellon's Gardens, Upperville, Virginia, 1 June 2010 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 28" x 28.5" Ar...Category
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$6,400 Sale Price20% Off - Bunny Mellon’s potting shed in Upperville, Virginia, 31 May 2010By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYBunny Lambert Mellon’s trompe l'oeil potting shed in Upperville, Virginia, 31 May 2010 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 28" x 28.5" Archival ...Category
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- Chez Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bel Air, California, 5 May 2007By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYChez Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bel Air, California, 5 May 2007 X Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 44" x 44.5" Archival Pigment Print Edition Nº 1 of 9 Ce...Category
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- Bunny Lambert Mellon’s potting shed, Upperville, Virginia, 31 May 2010By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYBunny Lambert Mellon’s potting shed, Upperville, Virginia, 31 May 2010 "Trompe l'oeil (and not)" Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 28" x 28.5...Category
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- 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
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- Julian Schnabel at his Outdoor Studio, Montauk, New York, 13 August 2001By Jonathan BeckerLocated in New York, NYJulian Schnabel at his Outdoor Studio, Montauk, New York, 13 August 2001 Schnabel's magnificent open-air studio benefits fully from the special light of Long Island's East End as oi...Category
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- Octopus Vulgaris ( Special Edition)By Jan C. SchlegelLocated in VALLAURIS, FRWhile also available as a platinum print on Arches Platinum Rag (56 x 76 cm), this larger version (63 x 99 cm) of Schlegel's famous "Octopus Vulgaris" is a true prowess. It is printed on 30 gsm Japanese Hand-made Gampi paper. Taking into account the thinness of the paper and the fact that the platinum salt emulsion is embedded into its fiber during the printing process, this is a real feat of technical strength. Considered as the most archival process of all; its perfectly matte tonal range goes from a cool, slightly purple black to split tones of brown and warm black, to a very warm brown. Sold framed with a museum glass measuring 85 x 115 cm _______ The ocean has always been one of the most mysterious places on earth. In the past many legends and myths have evolved around monsters living in the deep sea. As a child many of us used to fantasize about underwater monsters like giant colossal squids having so much power that they were able to take down ships. By looking at Jan C. Schlegel his pictures, you can get a small glimpse of the richness and diversity of our oceans. When we think of fish, we usually perceive them as food and think of salmon or tuna. The photographs reveal much more than what could be imagined and are truly a special tribute to all the different kind of species living underneath the surface. There are sea horses that look like dragons with galaxies on their skin, flounders with their perfect flat form and their ability to turn invisible or even squids that will remind you of aliens from another planet. Using platinum printing as a process allows Jan C. Schlegel to create a deepness in his pictures that makes every small detail and structure visible for the human eye. It gives you the impression of being able to feel the animal just by looking at the pictures. This series celebrates the art of nature...Category
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- Hippocampus Barbouri (female), Platinum Iridium Print, Photography, ContemporaryBy Jan C. SchlegelLocated in Munich, DE"Creatures of the seven seas" Series of 16 images plus cover page. Limited Editions of 5 on Arches Platinum Rag handmade by the artist himself. Edition 1 + 2 only available as compl...Category
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- Loligo Vulgaris, Platinum Iridium Print, Photography, ContemporaryBy Jan C. SchlegelLocated in Munich, DE"Creatures of the seven seas" Series of 16 images plus cover page. Limited Editions of 5 on Arches Platinum Rag handmade by the artist himself. Edition 1 + 2 only available as compl...Category
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- Palinurus Elephas, Platinum Iridium Print, Photography, ContemporaryBy Jan C. SchlegelLocated in Munich, DE"Creatures of the seven seas" Series of 16 images plus cover page. Limited Editions of 5 on Arches Platinum Rag handmade by the artist himself. Edition 1 + 2 only available as compl...Category
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- Pleuronectes Platessa, Platinum Iridium Print, Photography, ContemporaryBy Jan C. SchlegelLocated in Munich, DE"Creatures of the seven seas" Series of 16 images plus cover page. Limited Editions of 5 on Arches Platinum Rag handmade by the artist himself. Edition 1 + 2 only available as compl...Category
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