His compelling landscapes — both of nature and the human figure — explore physicality well beyond surface detail. For example, his portrait of Robert Mapplethorpe at the artist’s 1988 exhibition opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City is one of the most provocative images captured of Mapplethorpe during the last year of his life. The photograph speaks to Becker’s uncanny ability to capture the social-cultural statements of individuality as well as the irony and rawness of the human spirit.
As a portraitist and documentarian, Becker has traversed the globe in search of his most captivating and diverse subjects, including the upper echelons of entertainment, style, fashion and art, as well as unique subcultures such as the Yanomami tribe of the Amazon jungle. Additionally, he has collaborated to great acclaim with writers and artists such as Vanity Fair’s founding design director Bea Feitler and photographer Slim Aarons. His mentor was the great Hungarian artist Brassaï, from whom he had the good fortune to learn much about the geography of the human spirit through portraiture. Brassaï encouraged Becker to show the light of the soul, an essence only achieved through intense observation of human character.