Slim Aarons 'Sea Drive' : Midcentury Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
McClory, 1967. Original Publication: A Wonderful Time - Slim Aarons (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images
C Print
$5,400
H 40 in W 60 in
Slim Aarons 'Snowmass Gathering' - Mid-century Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
1968 (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) Slim Aarons, an acclaimed fine art photographer, is
C Print
Slim Aarons 'Zermatt Skiing' - Mid-century Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) Slim Aarons, an acclaimed fine art photographer, is synonymous with
C Print
$4,200
H 30 in W 40 in
Slim Aarons 'Relaxing in Lech' - Mid-century Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
in the Austrian ski resort of Lech, 1960. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim
C Print
$1,800
H 12 in W 16 in
Slim Aarons 'Culinary Heights' - Mid-century Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) Slim Aarons, an acclaimed fine art photographer, is synonymous with
C Print
$3,600
H 20 in W 24 in
Slim Aarons 'Catching The Sun In Cortina' - Mid-century Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
d'Ampezzo and the Dolomites, Italy, March 1976. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) Slim Aarons, an
C Print
$3,900
H 20 in W 30 in
Slim Aarons 'Snowmass Gathering' - Mid-century Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
1968 (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) Slim Aarons, an acclaimed fine art photographer, is
C Print
Slim Aarons 'Sea Drive' : Midcentury Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
McClory, 1967. Original Publication: A Wonderful Time - Slim Aarons (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images
C Print
Slim Aarons 'Sea Drive' : Midcentury Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
McClory, 1967. Original Publication: A Wonderful Time - Slim Aarons (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images
C Print
Slim Aarons, Skiing In Vail (Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
with Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and transparencies, which
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Verbier Skier'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
available in 20 x 16", 30 x 20", 40 x 30", and 60 x 40 inch sizes. IFAC in collaboration with Getty Images
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Poolside Pairs'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
, August 1976. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim Aarons (1916-2006) worked mainly
C Print
Slim Aarons 'El Venero, Marbella, Spain'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and transparencies, which span
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Eden Roc Hotel'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
, August 1976. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim Aarons (1916-2006) worked mainly
C Print
Slim Aarons 'Eden Roc Hotel'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
, August 1976. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim Aarons (1916-2006) worked mainly
C Print
$3,000
H 20 in W 16 in
Slim Aarons 'Saint-Tropez Swimmer' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
$3,600
H 24 in W 20 in
Slim Aarons 'Saint-Tropez Swimmer' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
$2,400
H 16 in W 12 in
Slim Aarons 'Saint-Tropez Swimmer' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
'Palm Springs Riders' 1970 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Produced from the original transparency Certificate of authenticity
Color
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
'Pool At El Cuarton' 1971 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Cuarton, Costa de la Luz, Spain, August 1971. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) Produced from the
Color
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
'Caleta Beach, Acapulco' 1968 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Beach holding hands, Acapulco, Mexico, 1968. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Color
$2,500
H 20 in W 24 in
'Pool At Bouldereign' 1973 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
/Getty Images) Produced from the original transparency Certificate of authenticity supplied Archive
Color
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
'Curling At St. Moritz' 1963 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
curling sheet, in St Moritz, Switzerland, March 1963. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Color
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
'Pool By The Sea' 1969 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
the Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc, Antibes, France, August 1969. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty
Color
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
'La Canzone Del Mare' 1958 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
, Italy, July 1958. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) C Print Produced from the original transparency
Color
$2,500
H 20 in W 24 in
'Lounging In Gstaad' 1961 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
on the slopes at at Gstaad, Switzerland, March 1961. 1961. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty
Color
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
'Algarve Hotel Pool' 1970 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Algarve Hotel, the Algarve, Portugal, 1970 (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) C Print
Color
$3,000
H 20 in W 24 in
'Pool In St Tropez' 1970 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
villa in St Tropez, France, circa 1970. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) C Print
Color
$3,900
H 30 in W 20 in
Slim Aarons 'Bahamas Speed Week' (Mid-Century Modern Photography)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
Hungry Elephant (1936) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
Located in London, GB
Brimful Of Fashion (1960) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print (Photo by William Vanderson/Getty Images
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
Slim Aarons 'Bahamas Speed Week' (Mid-Century Modern Photography)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
Slim Aarons 'Tennis Guests'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Tennis Week, 1953. Original Publication: From 'A Wonderful Time'. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images
Silver Gelatin
Slim Aarons 'Bailey's Beach, Newport'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Island, USA, 1953. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim Aarons (1916-2006) worked
Silver Gelatin
$1,354
H 30 in W 30 in
Make Up Mirror (1953) - Silver Gelatin Print
By Thurston Hopkins
Located in London, GB
Make Up Mirror (1953) - Silver Gelatin Print (Photo by Thurston Hopkins/Picture Post/Getty Images
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Slim Aarons 'Verbier Skier'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
available in 20 x 16", 30 x 20", 40 x 30", and 60 x 40 inch sizes. IFAC in collaboration with Getty Images
Lambda
Swimmer and Sunbather (Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and transparencies, which span
Lambda
$595
H 16 in W 20 in
Marilyn Candid Moment (1955) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
By Michael Ochs
Located in London, GB
Archives/Getty Images) NEW YORK - MARCH 1955: Actress Marilyn Monroe reads the book "To the Actor: On the
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
$1,100
H 40 in W 30 in
Film And Field Stars (1966) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
By Larry Ellis
Located in London, GB
Film And Field Stars (1966) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print (Photo by Larry Ellis/Express/Getty
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Park Stones (1929) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
Located in London, GB
Happy Marilyn (1956) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print (Photo by Roger Jackson/Central Press/Getty
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Sabrina (1953) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
Located in London, GB
Sabrina (1953) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) October 1953
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
$1,354
H 30 in W 40 in
Ponting: In the Pack (1910) - Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
By Herbert Ponting
Located in London, GB
Research Institute, University of Cambridge/Getty Images) A penguin wanders across the pack ice in the
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
Slim Aarons 'El Venero'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
in collaboration with the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast
Lambda
Catherine WIlke in Capri (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
in collaboration with the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Portofino Villa'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
, August 1977. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images) Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Algarve Hotel Pool'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
pool at the Algarve Hotel, the Algarve, Portugal, July 1970. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images
Lambda
$3,000
H 20 in W 16 in
Slim Aarons 'Bahamas Speed Week' (Mid-Century Modern Photography)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
$2,500
H 24 in W 20 in
Slim Aarons 'Bahamas Speed Week' (Mid-Century Modern Photography)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
Slim Aarons '''Relaxing at the Palm Springs Tennis Club'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim Aarons Relaxing at the Club 1970 Chromogenic Lambda
Lambda
$3,900
H 30 in W 20 in
Slim Aarons The Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
$1,800
H 12 in W 10 in
Slim Aarons 'Saint-Tropez Swimmer' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
Slim Aarons '''Relaxing at the Palm Springs Tennis Club'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Club, California, circa 1970. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim Aarons (1916
Lambda
$3,900
H 30 in W 20 in
Slim Aarons The Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and
C Print
Slim Aarons 'Gucci Pooch' Venice
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
, Venice, September, 1978. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim Aarons (1916-2006
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Acapulco Holiday'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
swimming pool in Acapulco, February 1966. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Estate
Lambda
$2,400
H 16 in W 12 in
Slim Aarons 'Saint Tropez Seafront' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Getty Images Gallery, London. Expert darkroom work on the original negatives allow us to print his
C Print
$5,400
H 60 in W 40 in
Slim Aarons 'Saint-Tropez Sunbathers' (Slim Aarons Estate Esdtion)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Archive at Getty Images is proud to represent Aarons' vast collection of negatives and transparencies
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Private Island, Philippines'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
16, 30 x 20 inches IFAC in collaboration with the Hilton Archive at Getty Images is proud to
Lambda
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.
Find a broad range of photography on 1stDibs today.
The first permanent image created by a camera — which materialized during the 1820s — is attributed to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The French inventor was on to something for sure. Kodak introduced roll film in the 1880s, allowing photography to become more democratic, although cameras wouldn’t be universally accessible until several decades later.
Digital photographic techniques, software, smartphone cameras and social-networking platforms such as Instagram have made it even easier in the modern era for budding photographers to capture the world around them as well as disseminate their images far and wide.
What might leading figures of visual art such as Andy Warhol have done with these tools at their disposal?
Today, when we aren’t looking at the digital photos that inundate us on our phones, we look to the past to celebrate the photographers who have broken rules as well as records — provocative and prolific artists like Horst P. Horst, Lillian Bassman and Helmut Newton, who altered the face of fashion and portrait photography; visionary documentary photographers such as Gordon Parks, whose best-known work was guided by social justice; and pioneers of street photography such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who shot for revolutionary travel magazines like Holiday with the likes of globetrotting society lensman Slim Aarons.
Find photographers you may not know in Introspective and The Study — where you’ll read about Berenice Abbott, who positioned herself atop skyscrapers for the perfect shot, or “conceptual artist-adventurer” Charles Lindsay, whose work combines scientific rigor with artistic expression, or Massimo Listri, known for his epic interiors of opulent Old World libraries. Photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron was given a Kodak camera as a child. Later, she shot on Polaroid film before buying her first 35mm camera in her teens. Barron's stunning portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol and other artists chronicle a crucial chapter of New York’s cultural history.
Throughout the past two centuries, photographers have used their medium to create expressive work that has resonated for generations. Shop a voluminous collection of this powerful fine photography on 1stDibs. Search by photographer to find the perfect piece for your living room wall, or spend some time with the work organized under various categories, such as landscape photography, nude photography and more.