Slim AaronsHotel Taormina Pool, Sicily1975
1975
About the Item
- Creator:Slim Aarons (1916-2006, American)
- Creation Year:1975
- Dimensions:Height: 60 in (152.4 cm)Width: 40 in (101.6 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: G130618148256
Slim Aarons
American photographer Slim Aarons captured the 20th century’s international jet set — U.S. socialites, European royalty, Hollywood stars — at play in sun-kissed locales like Monaco, Saint-Tropez and Palm Beach, as well as other luxurious settings around the globe.
Committed to eschewing makeup and artificial lighting, Aarons created images that are at once candid and polished, combining the relaxed posture of his subjects, who trusted him to document their lives, with the visual sharpness of a seasoned art director. Having gotten his start taking pictures for the U.S. military magazine Yank during World War II, he contributed over the course of his career to Life, Town and Country and Holiday magazines and published several books.
Aarons was born in Manhattan in 1916. He joined the army at 18, shooting military maneuvers at West Point before serving as a combat photographer, for which he was awarded a Purple Heart. After the war, he moved to California and began snapping socialites and movie stars.
In the 1950s, Aarons opened a bureau for Life magazine in Rome, where he took pictures capturing the postwar scene. He was always able to win the trust of his elite subjects, who saw him as close to a peer, rather than a paparazzo.
In a 2002 interview with The Independent, Aarons remarked, ''I knew everyone. They would invite me to one of their parties because they knew I wouldn't hurt them. I was one of them.'' This access allowed him to document the rich and famous with their guard down, reading newspapers and magazines, talking on the phone, relaxing by the pool, and chatting with friends. The 1957 photograph The Kings of Hollywood, for example, which won him wide acclaim, shows Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart laughing together as they celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Many of Aarons’s best-known images involve games and sports. In the 1972 Poolside Backgammon, two young women play the board game of the title against the backdrop of a majestic Acapulco estate. In 1958’s Cannes Watersports, a couple attempts to glide across the Golfe de la Napoule on Jet Skis, one expertly and one hanging on for dear life. And in Penthouse Pool, shot in Athens in 1961, a young woman wearing a yellow bathing cap smiles coyly at the camera, surrounded by friends and brightly colored seat cushions, with the Acropolis faintly visible in the background.
Among Aarons’s books are 1974’s A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life, and its 2003 sequel, Once Upon a Time. His final book, A Place in the Sun, was published in 2005, one year before his death.
Find a collection of vintage Slim Aarons photography on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Los Angeles, CA
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Self Portrait on Holiday in Athens, Greece (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)By Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CALegendary photographer Slim Aarons relaxes in a self portrait shot in Athens, near the Acropolis. Slim Aarons said, "I love a solo holiday. It tends to refresh the part of oneself that is most depleted by modern life — patience. "Let me dispel a few myths. You will be lonely. No: you won’t. My solo travels in Paris have brought many perfect hours of being alone but not a moment of loneliness. People who depend on other people are often in hiding from themselves. Two and a quarter million people live in the City of Light: you will see many of them and you will pass them in the street, but when you see Notre Dame after dark and walk home and perhaps stop to have a drink in the Marais, you can feel that the only thing that is missing from your experience is the common dependency on someone to distract your attention. "I’ve had solo pints of Guinness in the pubs of County Kerry and County Cork. I’ve walked across the sage- and juniper-scented maquis of Corsica on a spring day, where you can still find the world of Napoleon’s childhood. More than once I went to the Isle of Iona in the Scottish Hebrides...Category
1950s Realist Figurative Photography
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- Dining Al Fresco On Capri, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAItalian artist and actress Domiziana Giordano, Italian author Francesca Sanvitale (1928 - 2011), Dino Trappetti and Umberto Terrelli dining al fresco ...Category
1980s Realist Landscape Photography
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- Monte Carlo, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAFriends dressed in white board a riva boat in Monte Carlo, Monaco, 1975. In this classic Slim Aarons scene of 1970's glamour, a chic white vintage fashion and turquoise upholstery a...Category
1970s Realist Landscape Photography
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- Stocking Island, Bahamas Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAA high angle view of people swimming next to the ketch 'Traveler II' , Stocking Island, Bahamas, 1964. Slim Aarons Chromogenic Lambda print Printed La...Category
1960s Realist Landscape Photography
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- Motorboats In Antibes Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAMotorboats moored on the coast near the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera, August 1969. Slim Aarons Chromogenic Lambda print Printed Later Slim Aarons Estate Ed...Category
1960s Realist Landscape Photography
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- Positano Beach Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAElevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera beach in Positano, Italy, 1979. Slim Aarons Chromogenic Lambda print Printed Later Slim Aarons Es...Category
1970s Realist Landscape Photography
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- Slim Aarons 'El Venero, Marbella, Spain'By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYEl Venero, the Moorish villa of Hector and Chico de Ayala in Marbella, Spain, 1971. Slim Aarons worked mainly for society publications, taking pictures of the rich and famous both b...Category
1970s Realist Figurative Photography
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- Slim Aarons 'El Venero, Marbella, Spain'By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYEl Venero, the Moorish villa of Hector and Chico de Ayala in Marbella, Spain, 1971. Slim Aarons worked mainly for society publications, taking pictures of the rich and famous both b...Category
1970s Realist Figurative Photography
MaterialsLambda
- Slim Aarons 'Skiing Waiters' (Aarons Estate Edition)By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYSlim Aarons Skiing Waiters, 1960 C print Edition of 150 Caption: Three skiing waiters on a ski slope, with the man in the foreground carrying a bird on a tray, the second man carri...Category
1950s Realist Figurative Photography
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- Verbier Skier (Aarons Estate Edition)By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYA blonde skier on the slopes at Verbier, February 1964. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. Slim Aarons (1916-2006) w...Category
1960s Realist Figurative Photography
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- Verbier Skier (Aarons Estate Edition)By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYA blonde skier on the slopes at Verbier, February 1964. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. Slim Aarons (1916-2006) w...Category
1960s Realist Figurative Photography
MaterialsLambda
- Annevoie (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NY1980, Jean and Christiane de Montpellier d'Annevoie float across the moat of their home, Annevoie, Belgium. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authe...Category
1970s Realist Figurative Photography
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