Jonathan Becker - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

'Epic, stunning, and completely delicious. Jonathan Becker: Lost Time is a fitting legacy for one of the true photographic masters of our age.' - Graydon Carter, founder and co-editor of Air Mail and former editor of Vanity Fair

The first retrospective monograph on photographer Jonathan Becker, one of the great visual storytellers of our time

Over the course of five decades, Jonathan Becker has produced a body of evocative photographic work that documents lives of the twentieth-century beau monde.

A protégé of legendary Parisian photographer Brassaï and a longtime contributor to Vanity Fair, Becker's work provides a link between fine-art photography and the notion of the photographer as social observer.

Bringing together commissioned and personal work, this stunning collection presents more than 200 images from across Becker's career, charting his journeys in New York, Paris, London, and Buenos Aires from the 1970s to the 2010s. Portraits of artists Ed Ruscha and Cindy Sherman, writers Arthur Miller and Eudora Welty, musicians David Bowie and Mick Jagger, and others reveal Becker's exceptional eye and astute sociological observations.

The monograph includes an introductory text by the book's editor, Mark Holborn, along with a narrative text by Becker about his life, travels, and encounters with some of the most well-known figures in the twentieth century. Brilliantly reproduced and housed in a cloth case, this luxurious collection is a captivating and essential book that reveals Becker as one of the premier chroniclers of our time.

Includes Becker's portraits of figures such as: Peter Beard, HRH King Charles III, Fran Lebowitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Arthur Miller, Jackie O., Gwyneth Paltrow, Cindy Sherman, André Leon Talley, François Truffaut, Gloria Vanderbilt, Gore Vidal, Diana Vreeland, Andy Warhol, and many more.

Review Quotes

As featured in The Financial Times, The Guardian and Vanity Fair

'Spans nearly five decades and demonstrates Mr. Becker's skill for capturing glamorous subjects with candor.' - Wall Street Journal

'Jonathan Becker's pictures have a social satire quality about them, as if he were a visual Tom Wolfe.' - Philip Gefter, author & photography critic

'Epic, stunning, and completely delicious. Jonathan Becker: Lost Time is a fitting legacy for one of the true photographic masters of our age.' - Graydon Carter, founder and co-editor of Air Mail and former editor of Vanity Fair

'Explores a Vanity Fair photographer's eye for society.' - The Financial Times

'The pictures in Lost Time perfectly evoke an era.' - The Guardian

'Presents a glittering jet set but serves, too, as a moving meditation on the passage of time.' - Vanity Fair

'From garden strolls with Brassaï to nights out with Andy Warhol ... [Becker] documents intimate moments with the 20th century's high society.' - Air Mail

About the Author

Jonathan Becker began his professional career as a portrait photographer for Interview and Town & Country, and in 1990 he became a contributing photographer at Vanity Fair. He is the author of several books, including 30 Years at Vanity Fair, Bright Young Things: New York & London, and Studios by the Sea.

Mark Holborn is an editor and book designer who has worked internationally with such diverse artists as Lucian Freud, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Issey Miyake, James Turrell, and William Eggleston. He has edited several Phaidon books, including Sun and Moon, Lucian Freud, and Steven Klein.