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.
Yanomami, Amazonia, Brazil, January 1995
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Yanomami, Amazonia, Brazil, January 1995 X Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 28" x 28.5" Archival Pigment Print Edition Nº 2 of 9 Certificate of Origin Signed and Titled...
Archival Pigment
At the Real Dolls Factory, San Diego, 19 February 2015
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
At the Real Dolls Factory, 19 February 2015 Portrait of a sex doll crated for shipment to a client. The Real Dolls brand sat at the high-end of the trade, p...
Archival Pigment
Hunter Thompson and Anita Bejmuk at home, Aspen, Colorado, 7 July 2002
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Hunter Thompson and Anita Bejmuk at home, Aspen, Colorado, 7 July 2002 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Medium: Archival Pigment Print Dimensions: 44...
Archival Pigment
Chez Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bel Air, California, 5 May 2007
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Chez 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...
Archival Pigment
Ernest Hemingway's house, Ketchum, Idaho, 30 June 2011
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Ernest Hemingway's house, Ketchum, Idaho, 30 June 2011 On the other side of this door, in the foyer, Ernest Hemingway ended his life with a shotgun. Photographed by Jonathan Becker...
Archival Pigment
Bunny Mellon’s potting shed in Upperville, Virginia, 31 May 2010
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Bunny Lambert Mellon’s trompe l'oeil potting shed in Upperville, Virginia, 31 May 2010 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 28" x 28.5" Archival ...
Archival Pigment
at the Darulaman Palace, Kabul, August 2003
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
at the Darulaman Palace, Kabul, August 2003 X Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 28" x 28.5" Archival Pigment Print Edition Nº 1 of 15 Certificate of Origin Signed and T...
Archival Pigment
Bunny Lambert Mellon’s potting shed, Upperville, Virginia, 31 May 2010
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Bunny Lambert Mellon’s potting shed, Upperville, Virginia, 31 May 2010 "Trompe l'oeil (and not)" Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 28" x 28.5...
Archival Pigment
$25,000
Chevalier André Leon Talley on the Pont Alexandre III, Paris, 30 June 2013
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Chevalier André Leon Talley on the Pont Alexandre III at six in the morning, Paris, 30 June 2013 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 44" x ...
Archival Pigment
Jocelyne Wildenstein at home, New York, 11 January 1998
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Jocelyne Wildenstein at home, New York, 11 January 1998 It was all animal. The wilder, the better. The décor, the wallpaper, the sculpture and paintings, the trophies, the pets, t...
Archival Pigment
Hunter Thompson and Anita Bejmuk at home, Aspen, Colorado, 7 July 2002
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Hunter Thompson and Anita Bejmuk at home, Aspen, Colorado, 7 July 2002 X Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 18" x 18.5" Archival Pigment Pr...
Archival Pigment
Tactile Light
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
The photography of Carla van de Puttelaar allows the eye to touch the skin on many different levels. Through her lens, she makes the viewer aware of the sensitivity and the sensualit...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new series inspired by Rembrandt’s nudes. His incredible drawings and etchings show not only amazing technique and individuality, but also a sublime mastery of light, shadow and composition. His strong light-dark contrasts and his bold compositions, engaging costumes and draperies, resulted in powerful visual images. His models, portrayed from life, with their own personalities and bodies, not adjusted to fashion and ideals, were striking in their day, and have remained so into the present. Rembrandt’s nudes inspired me to create new works in which I have been able to capture magical moments in new works of art. The explosion of creativity has resulted in a large body of work which I call The Rembrandt Series...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new series inspired by Rembrandt’s nudes. His incredible drawings and etchings show not only amazing technique and individuality, but also a sublime mastery of light, shadow and composition. His strong light-dark contrasts and his bold compositions, engaging costumes and draperies, resulted in powerful visual images. His models, portrayed from life, with their own personalities and bodies, not adjusted to fashion and ideals, were striking in their day, and have remained so into the present. Rembrandt’s nudes inspired me to create new works in which I have been able to capture magical moments in new works of art. The explosion of creativity has resulted in a large body of work which I call The Rembrandt Series...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new series inspired by Rembrandt’s nudes. His incredible drawings and etchings show not only amazing technique and individuality, but also a sublime mastery of light, shadow and composition. His strong light-dark contrasts and his bold compositions, engaging costumes and draperies, resulted in powerful visual images. His models, portrayed from life, with their own personalities and bodies, not adjusted to fashion and ideals, were striking in their day, and have remained so into the present. Rembrandt’s nudes inspired me to create new works in which I have been able to capture magical moments in new works of art. The explosion of creativity has resulted in a large body of work which I call The Rembrandt Series...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new series inspired by Rembrandt’s nudes. His incredible drawings and etchings show not only amazing technique and individuality, but also a sublime mastery of light, shadow and composition. His strong light-dark contrasts and his bold compositions, engaging costumes and draperies, resulted in powerful visual images. His models, portrayed from life, with their own personalities and bodies, not adjusted to fashion and ideals, were striking in their day, and have remained so into the present. Rembrandt’s nudes inspired me to create new works in which I have been able to capture magical moments in new works of art. The explosion of creativity has resulted in a large body of work which I call The Rembrandt Series...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new series inspired by Rembrandt’s nudes. His incredible drawings and etchings show not only amazing technique and individuality, but also a sublime mastery of light, shadow and composition. His strong light-dark contrasts and his bold compositions, engaging costumes and draperies, resulted in powerful visual images. His models, portrayed from life, with their own personalities and bodies, not adjusted to fashion and ideals, were striking in their day, and have remained so into the present. Rembrandt’s nudes inspired me to create new works in which I have been able to capture magical moments in new works of art. The explosion of creativity has resulted in a large body of work which I call The Rembrandt Series...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new...
Archival Pigment
Rembrandt Series
By Carla van de Puttelaar
Located in Sante Fe, NM
I cherish a the Dutch Old Masters. As a contemporary artist, I work with the female nude and portraiture, so I was enthusiastic when the Rembrandt House approached me to create a new...
Archival Pigment
At Ernest Hemingway's House, Ketchum, Idaho, 1 July 2011
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
At Ernest Hemingway's House, Ketchum, Idaho, 1 July 2011 Hence maintained and left impeccably intact, in stillness, since the shotgun blast twenty paces away, fifty years before Ph...
Archival Pigment
Sold
H 28 in W 28 in
Charles, HRH The Prince of Wales at Highgrove, England, 21 June 2010
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Charles, HRH The Prince of Wales at home, Highgrove, Gloucestershire, England, 21 June 2010 In reflection having just completed his magnum opus, ...
Archival Pigment