Leisure in Antibes
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Slim AaronsLeisure in Antibes1969
1969
About the Item
- Creator:Slim Aarons (1916-2006, American)
- Creation Year:1969
- Dimensions:Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Staffordshire, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU444377982
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, he opened a bureau for Life magazine in Rome, where he took pictures capturing the postwar scene. Aarons 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, he 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 Aarons 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.
- C.Z. Guest Slim Aarons Estate Stamped PrintBy Slim AaronsLocated in London, GBC. Z. Guest 1955 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition American socialite Mrs. Winston F. C. Guest (aka C. Z. Guest, 1920 – 2003) with a poodle and a Great Dane at her...Category
1950s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Mazatlan Mansion Beach Slim Aarons Estate Stamped PrintBy Slim AaronsLocated in London, GBMazatlan Mansion 1984 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition Eldorado, the Redo family villa in Mazatlan, Mexico, January 1984. unframed c type print printed 2023 16 ...Category
1980s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Hotel Excelsior Slim Aarons Estate Stamped PrintBy Slim AaronsLocated in London, GBHotel Excelsior 1957 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition The beach front of the luxurious Excelsior Hotel on the Venice Lido, 1957. unframed c type print printed...Category
1950s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Snowmass Gathering Slim Aarons Estate Stamped PrintBy Slim AaronsLocated in London, GBSnowmass Gathering 1968 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a pa...Category
1960s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Saint-Tropez Boucherie Slim Aarons Estate Stamped PrintBy Slim AaronsLocated in London, GBSaint-Tropez Boucherie 1971 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition A boucherie or butcher’s shop on Rue des Commercants in Saint-Tropez, on the French Riviera, August 1...Category
1970s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment
- Chalet Costi Slim Aarons Estate Stamped PrintBy Slim AaronsLocated in London, GBChalet Costi 1968 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition Skiers outside the Chalet Costi in Zermatt, 1968. unframed c type print printed 2023 numbered in ink on the f...Category
1960s Modern Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment