'Skiers In Gstaad' 1961 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Archival Pigment
'Cannes Watersports' 1958 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
$3,600
'Monte Carlo Swimwear' 1970 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Archival Pigment
'Capri Bay' 1958 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Bean House' 1992 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'David Niven' 1970 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
$2,200Sale Price|20% Off
'Mustique' 1973 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Archival Pigment
'Schonborn Palace' 1970 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Casa Montefino' 1977 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Porto Ercole' 1969 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Nassau Sailing' 1971 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Slim Aarons' 1968 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Villa Vera' 1968 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Exuma Holiday' 1964 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Von Bismarcks' 1990 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Pagoda Poolhouse' 1985 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Treasure Cay' 1986 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Island Paradise' 1984 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Cavallo Bathers' 1984 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Portofino Harbour' 1977 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Porto Rotondo' 1990 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Portofino' 1985 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Archival Pigment
'Las Brisas' 1978 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
Il Pellicano Pool 1986 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Bouldereign' 1973 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Archival Pigment
Polo World Cup Slim Aarons Limited Estate Print
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Greek Monastery' 1983 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Zermatt Skiing' 1968 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Winter Suntans' 1954 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Ardizzone's House' 1985 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Port Life' 1977 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Monte Carlo' 1956 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Henley Regatta' 1955 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'John Huston' 1979 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Plantation Cocoyer' 1981 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Mazatlan Seaside' 1984 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
$3,600
'Snorkelling Holiday' 1975 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Bikini Girls' 1975 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Pussyfooting' 1958 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Archival Pigment
'Out Islands' 1964 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Cocteau Collector' 1982 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Courchevel' 1970 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Archival Pigment
'Coral Beach' 1977 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Roca Llisa' 1978 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Sugarbush Skiing' 1960 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Taormina' 1963 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Archival Pigment
Pevero Golf Corse Slim Aarons Limited Estate Print
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Leonard Dalsemer' 1974 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Tyrolean Churches' 1990 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Missouri Hunt' 1955 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Black and White, Silver Gelatin
'Lili Livi' 1960 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Poolside Secrets' 1961 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
Flamingos In Flight Slim Aarons Limited Estate Print
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Positano Beach' 1979 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Hotel Taormina' 1975 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Ice Bar' 1979 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
'Verbier Skier' 1964 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
Skiers At Gstaad Slim Aarons Limited Estate Print
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
Palm Beach Party Slim Aarons Limited Estate Print
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
Palm Beach Habituees Slim Aarons Limited Estate Print
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II, earning a Purple Heart. Reflecting on that experience, he famously remarked that the only beach worth landing on was...
Color, Archival Pigment
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.