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.
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Bunny Lambert Mellon’s gardens, Upperville, Virginia, 1 June 2010
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
At Oak Spring Farm, Bunny Lambert Mellon's Gardens, Upperville, Virginia, 1 June 2010 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 28" x 28.5" Ar...
Archival Pigment
La Chasse au Cerf, Normandie, France, September 1975
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
La Chasse au Cerf, Normandie, France, September 1975 Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 44" x 44.5" Archival Pigment Print Edition Nº 1 of 9 Certificate of Origin Signed a...
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
Villa Cetinale, Siena, Italy, May 2012
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Villa Cetinale, Siena, Italy, May 2012 A moment at a storied property where centuries of history pile on Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary ...
Platinum
$1,350
H 36 in W 44 in D 0.1 in
Untitled (Nr. 0238) Landscape Photography 36" x 44" Edition 1/12 by Ben Cope
By Ben Cope
Located in Culver City, CA
Untitled (Nr. 0238) Landscape Photography 36" x 44" Edition 1/12 by Ben Cope Unframed - ships rolled in a tube Signed and numbered by the artist. Ben Cope + Rowan Daly Off the Gri...
Archival Pigment
Tussle #02 - The Princess and her Lover
By Stefanie Schneider
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Tussle #02 (The Princess and her Lover) - 2007, part of the 29 Palms, CA project, Edition of 10, 20x24cm, Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid, Not mounted, Signature label an...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid
$2,750
H 30 in W 45 in D 0.1 in
"Syrens No 2" Black & White Photography 30" x 45" in Ed. 1/7 by Larsen Sotelo
By Larsen Sotelo
Located in Culver City, CA
"Syrens No 2" Black & White Photography 30" x 45" in Ed. 1/7 by Larsen Sotelo Not framed. Ships in a tube Signed and numbered by the artist. Comes with COA issued by the artist....
Rag Paper, Giclée, Archival Ink
Stand
By Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Stand, 2017, Edition 2/7 Based on a Polaroid Digital C-print, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017-156 Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde is a ...
C Print, Color, Polaroid
Alter Ego
By Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Alter Ego, 2017, Edition 2/7 Based on an original Impossible film Digital C-print, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2...
C Print, Polaroid
$700
H 18 in W 24 in D 0.1 in
Untitled (Nr. 1751) Nude Landscape Photography 18 x 24 in Ed 2/20 by Rowan Daly
By Rowan Daly
Located in Culver City, CA
Untitled (Nr. 1751) Nude Landscape Photography 18 x 24 in Ed 2/20 by Rowan Daly Unframed - ships rolled in a tube Signed and numbered by the artist Comes with COA issued by the art...
Archival Pigment
$700
H 18 in W 24 in D 0.1 in
"Untitled (Nr. 6426)" Nude Photography 18" x 24" Edition of 20 by Rowan Daly
By Rowan Daly
Located in Culver City, CA
"Untitled (Nr. 6426)" Nude Photography 18" x 24" Edition of 20 by Rowan Daly Unframed - ships rolled in a tube Signed and numbered by the artist Comes with COA issued by the artist Ben Cope + Rowan Daly Off the Grid Off the Grid is the culmination of a six-year photographic journey through Baja, Mexico. Ben Cope and Rowan Daly began their travels in 2014, working their way through the towns of la Salinas, Baja Mar, and Cantamar, down through Ensanada and la Bufadora. This series of photographs depicts the pair’s adventures and explorations. Off the Grid documents the textures, people, and places visited during this incredible journey. Ben Cope is a Los Angeles based portrait artist with a BFA in ceramic sculpture and photography from Columbus State University. He maintains a successful career with a diverse portfolio including fashion, editorial, celebrity portraiture and advertising. He is widely known for his celebrity and fashion portraiture, which has been published internationally in publications such as Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, GQ, The Work Magazine, Fucking Young, and l’Officiel, and has shot international campaigns for such clients as Adidas, L’Oréal, Paul...
Archival Pigment
$362
H 7.56 in W 9.97 in D 0.04 in
Morning. Noon. Night. - Contemporary, Polaroid, Nude, Color
By Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
'Morning. Noon. Night' part of the series 'A girl called N.' 2019, 19x25cm, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Signed on the back and...
Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid
$1,350
H 36 in W 44 in D 0.1 in
Untitled (Nr. 2790) Photography 36" x 44" Edition of 12 by Rowan Daly
By Rowan Daly
Located in Culver City, CA
Untitled (Nr. 2790) Photography 36" x 44" Edition of 12 by Rowan Daly Unframed - ships rolled in a tube Signed and numbered by the artist Comes with COA issued by the artist Ben C...
Archival Pigment
Fata Morgana
By Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Fata Margana - 2017 Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proof Archival C-print, based on the Polaroid not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017-138 Kirs...
Archival Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid
$380
H 11.82 in W 9.45 in D 0.04 in
Weight of the World - Mankind, Nature, Women, Nude
By Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Weight of the World - 2017 30x24cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label with certificate Artist inventory PL2017-...
Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid
$425
H 15.75 in W 15.75 in D 0.04 in
Joshua's Sculpture from the series Joshua Tales, based on an Original Polaroid
By Sven van Driessche
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Joshua's Sculpture (Joshua Tales) - 2015 40x40cm, Edition 1/7, Archival Color Print on Pearl photo paper, based on the Polaroid, Signed on the back. Not mounted. Whether in colo...
Archival Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid
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
Villa Cetinale, Siena, Italy, May 2012
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Villa Cetinale, Siena, Italy, May 2012 A moment at a storied property where centuries of history pile on Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary ...
Platinum