Slim AaronsUnderwater Drink, Las Brisas, Estate Edition1972
1972
About the Item
- Creator:Slim Aarons (1916-2006, American)
- Creation Year:1972
- Dimensions:Height: 40 in (101.6 cm)Width: 30 in (76.2 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1481714923
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.
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- 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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- 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
MaterialsLambda
- Self Portrait on Holiday in Athens, GreeceBy 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
MaterialsLambda
- Slim Aarons 'Lake Tahoe Trip' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)By Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAYoung women canoeing on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, 1959. 40 x 40 inches $3950 30 x 30 inches $3350 20 x 20 inches $3000 This is a vibrant photograph, printed by the Slim Aar...Category
1950s Realist Landscape Photography
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- Cortina d'Ampezzo, ItalyBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CASkiers walk up a mountain in Cortina D'Ampezzo, a ski resort in northern Italy, 1962. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Sl...Category
1960s Realist Landscape Photography
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- Palm Springs Party, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAA poolside party at a desert house, designed by Richard Neutra for Edgar J. Kaufmann, in Palm Springs, January 1970. Featured in the group are: industrial designer Raymond Loewy (1893 - 1986, centre, standing), Nelda Linsk (in yellow), wife of art dealer Joseph Linsk, and Helen Dzo Dzo (second from right) Over the course of a career lasting half a century, Slim Aarons (1916-2006) portrayed high society, aristocracy, authors, artists, business icons, the celebrated and their milieu. In doing so, he captured a golden age of wealth, privilege, beauty and leisure, a history of glamour that occurred alongside—but quite separate from—the cultural and political backdrop of the second half of the Twentieth Century. Increasingly known for his influence, Aarons's casually glamorous jetset aesthetic can be seen today in fashion, art, and celebrity photography. Recent articles credit his work with inspiring the casually flawless style of top Instagram influencers, full of sunshine and escapism. Reference: "Dive in: how Slim Aarons art directed the poolside summer. French brand Maje are the latest label to take inspiration from Slim Aarons’ pictures of the jetset on holiday." Slim Aarons Palm Springs Party...Category
1970s Realist Landscape Photography
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- Cotton BayBy Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYThe Campbells' pool at Cotton Bay, on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, November 1982. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of a...Category
1980s Realist Landscape 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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- Seaside Picnic (Aarons Estate Edition)By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYRudulph Ellis Carter holds a picnic in Newport, August 1987. The group includes David Lindh, Frank Gilligan, Kenneth Lindh, Diana Prince, Foxy Carter, Lisette Prince de Ramel, Yusha...Category
1980s 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
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- Slim Aarons Sugarbush ChaletBy Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYA group of people relaxing in a chalet in the Sugarbush Mountain ski resort, one of the largest ski resorts in New England, in Warren, Vermont, USA, circa 1960. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. Slim Aarons (1916-2006) worked mainly for society publications photographing "attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places." Taking pictures of the rich and famous both before and after serving as a photographer for the US military magazine Yank during World War II. His work has been included in the publications Town and Country, Holiday, Venture and LIFE. Aarons was known for the positive portrayals he gave to the people he photographed and was invited to high-society gatherings for exactly this reason. His subject matter covered American and European society as well as nobility and both minor and major stars of the day. Print is also available in 30 x 30", 40 x...Category
1960s Realist Figurative Photography
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- Slim Aarons, Vermont Winter (Aarons Estate Edition)By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYcirca 1960: Students from Stowe Preparatory School track through deep snow near Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak, Vermont. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certif...Category
1960s Realist Landscape Photography
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