Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
Lambda
Olimpia Hruska, Italy, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Swedish model Olimpia Hruska, wearing a bikini, poses against a rock on the Costa Smeralda...
Lambda
Olimpia Hruska, Italy, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Swedish model Olimpia Hruska, wearing a bikini, poses against a rock on the Costa Smeralda...
Lambda
Olimpia Hruska, Italy, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Swedish model Olimpia Hruska, wearing a bikini, poses against a rock on the Costa Smeralda...
Lambda
Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Lambda
Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Lambda
Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Lambda
Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Lambda
Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Lambda
Coming Ashore, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of t...
Lambda
Hotel Punta Tragara, Italy, Estate Edition Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri, Italy.
Lambda
September Affair, Italy, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1940s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features actress Joan Fontaine (1917 - 2003) and co-star Joseph Cotten (1905 - 1994) receive direct...
Emulsion, Photographic Paper, ABS, Black and White, Digital, Photogram
September Affair, Italy, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1940s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features actress Joan Fontaine (1917 - 2003) and co-star Joseph Cotten (1905 - 1994) receive direct...
Emulsion, Photographic Paper, ABS, Black and White, Digital, Photogram
Bettina Graziani, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features French fashion model Bettina Graziani wading in the shallow waters of Costa Smeralda, pulling a small y...
Lambda
Bettina Graziani, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features French fashion model Bettina Graziani wading in the shallow waters of Costa Smeralda, pulling a small y...
Lambda
Bettina Graziani, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features French fashion model Bettina Graziani wading in the shallow waters of Costa Smeralda, pulling a small y...
Lambda
Bettina Graziani, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features French fashion model Bettina Graziani wading in the shallow waters of Costa Smeralda, pulling a small y...
Lambda
Hotel Punta Tragara, Italy, Estate Edition Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri, Italy.
Lambda
$1,800
Porto Ercole, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the waterfront at Porto Ercole, Italy.
Lambda
$3,000
Porto Ercole, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the waterfront at Porto Ercole, Italy.
Lambda
$2,400
Porto Ercole, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the waterfront at Porto Ercole, Italy.
Lambda
$1,800
Edna Lewis, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features art director Edna Lewis in a restaurant in Positano, Italy.
Lambda
$2,400
Edna Lewis, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features art director Edna Lewis in a restaurant in Positano, Italy.
Lambda
$3,600
Edna Lewis, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features art director Edna Lewis in a restaurant in Positano, Italy.
Lambda
$3,000
Edna Lewis, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features art director Edna Lewis in a restaurant in Positano, Italy.
Lambda
Princess Colonna, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photogra
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Princess Colonna, posing wearing a Panama-style hat with a blue, white and green blouse, on the island...
Lambda
Princess Colonna, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photogra
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Princess Colonna, posing wearing a Panama-style hat with a blue, white and green blouse, on the island...
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989.
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989.
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989.
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989.
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989.
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989.
Lambda
Portofino Villa, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests by the pool at Klaus Pudel's villa, the Casa Montefino, overlooking Portofino harbour, Portofin...
Lambda
Portofino Villa, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests by the pool at Klaus Pudel's villa, the Casa Montefino, overlooking Portofino harbour, Portofin...
Lambda
Portofino Villa, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests by the pool at Klaus Pudel's villa, the Casa Montefino, overlooking Portofino harbour, Portofin...
Lambda
$1,800
Conca dei Marini, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1980s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a busy bay in Conca dei Marini, on the Amalfi coast in Italy, August 1984.
Lambda
$2,400
Conca dei Marini, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1980s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a busy bay in Conca dei Marini, on the Amalfi coast in Italy, August 1984.
Lambda
$3,000
Conca dei Marini, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1980s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a busy bay in Conca dei Marini, on the Amalfi coast in Italy, August 1984.
Lambda
$3,600
Conca dei Marini, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1980s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a busy bay in Conca dei Marini, on the Amalfi coast in Italy, August 1984.
Lambda
Hotel Punta Tragara, Italy, Estate Edition Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri, Italy.
Lambda
Hotel Punta Tragara, Italy, Estate Edition Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri, Italy.
Lambda
Beach Backgammon, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people playing backgammon on the beach at the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, Italy This is an es...
Lambda
Beach Backgammon, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people playing backgammon on the beach at the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, Italy This is an es...
Lambda
Beach Backgammon, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people playing backgammon on the beach at the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, Italy This is an es...
Lambda
Beach Backgammon, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people playing backgammon on the beach at the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, Italy This is an es...
Lambda
$3,000
Tullio Abbate, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Tullio Abbate of Abbate Boats at the back of a yacht moored at a property on the shores of Lake Como,...
Lambda
$1,800
Tullio Abbate, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Tullio Abbate of Abbate Boats at the back of a yacht moored at a property on the shores of Lake Como,...
Lambda
$2,400
Tullio Abbate, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Tullio Abbate of Abbate Boats at the back of a yacht moored at a property on the shores of Lake Como,...
Lambda
$3,600
Tullio Abbate, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Tullio Abbate of Abbate Boats at the back of a yacht moored at a property on the shores of Lake Como,...
Lambda
Positano Beach, Italy, Estate Edition, Landscape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1970s landscape photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an elevated view looking down on sunbathers and parasols on the beach at La Scogliera bea...
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.