Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
American, 1916-2006
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.
to
101
108
80
57
82
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
77
3
20
23
20
13
1
34
195
139
80
60
36
19
19
15
13
11
11
11
10
7
7
7
6
6
6
6
5
5
5
58
58
58
19
2
82
80
31
27
26
62
18
Size: Medium
Orientation: Vertical
Artist: Slim Aarons
Parrot Jungle, Miami, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1955 portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a family day out at the Parrot Jungle amusement park near Miami.
This is an estate stamped and...
Category
1950s Realist Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Hotel Sports 1958 - Oversize
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Hotel Sports - Oversize
Holidaymakers water-skiing in front of the Carlton Hotel, Cannes.
(Photo by Slim Aarons)
Chromogenic print
paper size 30 x 20"...
Category
1950s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print, Color
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Hotel Sports 1958 - Oversize
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Hotel Sports - Oversize
Holidaymakers water-skiing in front of the Carlton Hotel, Cannes.
(Photo by Slim Aarons)
Chromogenic print
paper size 30 x 20"...
Category
1950s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print, Color
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Speedboat Landing - Oversize
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Speedboat Landing - Oversize
A Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of the Il Pellicano Hotel in Porto Ercole...
Category
1970s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print, Color
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Speedboat Landing - Oversize
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Speedboat Landing - Oversize
A Magnum motorboat belonging to Count Filippo Theodoli arrives at the private jetty of the Il Pellicano Hotel in Porto Ercole...
Category
1970s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print, Color
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Roquebrune-Cap-Martin 1970 - Oversize
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Roquebrune-Cap-Martin - Oversize
A view from a hillside in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, southeastern France, looking toward Monaco, August 1970.
(Photo by Slim...
Category
1970s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print, Color
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Underwater Drink 1972 - Oversize
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Underwater Drink - Oversize
A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972.
(Photo by Slim...
Category
1970s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print, Color
Faithful Couple (Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Caption:August 1968: Singer Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones stand in front of a gilt framed portrait in Castletown Mansion, Eire.
Estate stamped and hand nu...
Category
1960s Realist Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Laguna Beach Surfers, Slim Aarons Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A surfer in the sea at Laguna Beach, California, January 1970. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Nu...
Category
1970s Realist Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Nassau Speed Week, Dan Gurney (Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
American racing driver Dan Gurney at the 1963 Nassau Speed Week.
Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity fr...
Category
1960s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Poolside In Kenya (Slim Aarons, Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Poolside In Kenya, 1958
Chromogenic Lambda Print
Estate edition of 150
A woman sits at the edge of a swimming pool in Kenya, December 1958.
Estate stamped and hand numbered edition...
Category
1960s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Decked in Finery
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Slim Aarons
Decked in Finery, 1956
Fiber Print
Estate edition of 150
An unknown guest at a New Year's Eve party held at the Romanoff Restaurant in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Taken...
Category
1950s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Swimmer and Sunbather, Tahoe, Estate Edition. Vintage 50s California Nevada line
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
An underwater swimmer and a sunbather at the Cal Neva Lodge on the shore of Lake Tahoe, 1959. The Cal Neva resort and casino straddles the border between Nevada and California and the line on the bottom of the pool marks the state boundary. It was owned by Frank Sinatra from 1960 to 1968.
Slim Aarons
Swimmer and Sunbather
Cal Neva Lodge, Lake Tahoe
Chromogenic Lambda print
Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Printed Later
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer.
60 x 40 inches
$3950
40 x 30 inches
$3350
30 x 20 inches
$3000
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer.
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 that occurred alongside—but quite separate from—the cultural and political backdrop of the second half of the Twentieth Century.
The Slim Aarons Estate has released the limited Estate edition as a Lambda print, which is a modern c-type prints. They have chosen Lambda prints for their sharpness, clarity, colour saturation and quality, compared to archival inkjet prints. Lambda printing gives true continuous tone.
Photograph is unframed
Slide show includes a close-up of the Slim Aarons estate's stamp.
Collector will get the next number in the edition
* We are pleased to offer the entire archive of the Slim Aarons Estate, offering the official Slim Aarons Estate Edition (only offered in this edition of 150). Please contact us for additional photographs from Slim Aarons *
Internal:
Vintage Sport, Midcentury Modern, Vintage Lake Tahoe, Vintage Glamour, Vintage Slim Aarons, Vintage Cal Neva Lodge, American Realist, Midcentury sport, Midcentury Glamour, California Nevada State Line, Midcentury Tahoe, Lake Tahoe Trip, Vintage Watersports, Vintage Nevada, Vintage Swimming...
Category
1950s American Realist Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Hotel on Lake Como, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The swimming pool and jetty at the Villa d'Este Hotel, Lake Como, Italy, June 1983
Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included
Numbered and stamped by the Slim ...
Category
1960s Realist Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Il Pellicano Pool, Estate Edition, Seascape Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Guests walking up steps at the Hotel Il Pellicano at Porto Ercole, Tuscany, August 1969
Slim Aarons
Il Pellicano Pool, 1969
Lambda Print
4 sizes available
Slim Aarons Estate Edition...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Realist Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Slim Aarons, Marie-Louise Scio, Tettuccio Terme, Montecatini, Italy
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Slim Aarons
Marie-Louise Scio (Tettuccio Terme, Montecatini, Italy, 1980)
Chromogenic Lambda print
Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide.
Marie-Louise Scio poses in a leotard at the Tettuccio Terme in Montecatini, Italy, November 1980
60 x 40 inches
$3950
40 x 30 inches
$3350
30 x 20 inches
$3000
Undercurrent Projects is proud to offer this vibrant photograph, printed by the Slim Aarons estate. It is part of the estate's only official limited run, of 150. Estate stamp embossed on recto, hand numbered in ink on recto, with certificate of authenticity from the estate (not a secondary gallery licensing from the estate).
Increasingly heralded for his influence, Slim Aarons (1916-2006) made a career out of photographing "attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places." Aarons is known for his iconic images of Hollywood glamour and luxurious people, places and lifestyles.
Undercurrent Projects offers premium quality photographic prints from the Slim Aarons Archive, owned and housed by Getty Images. All photographs are printed and authorized by the Getty Images Gallery, London. Photographs are printed utilizing the original transparency held at the archive source.
Aarons began his career as a combat photographer in World War II. Though he earned a Purple Heart for his service, he declared that combat had taught him that the only beach worth landing on was decorated with beautiful people enjoying themselves in the sun.
Slim Aarons is noted for his documentation of the Beautiful People over 50 years, encompassing high society, celebrity, aristocracy, and the jet set. He was born and raised in New York City and New Jersey and later New Hampshire. He took up photography as a teenager. At the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the U. S. Army and was later appointed official photographer at the United States Military Academy at West Point. During World War II he served as an army combat photographer for Yank magazine in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. After the war he became a freelance photojournalist, first based in Hollywood, then Rome, then New York. His photographs appeared in many magazines, including Life, Holiday, Town & Country, Look, Venture, and Travel & Leisure. His first book A Wonderful Time (1974) is considered a classic.
Slide show includes a close-up of the Slim Aarons estate's stamp.
The Slim Aarons Estate has released the limited Estate edition as a Lambda print, which is a modern c-type prints. They have chosen Lambda prints for their sharpness, clarity, colour saturation and quality, compared to archival inkjet prints. Lambda printing gives true continuous tone.
Internal: Slim Aarons, Acapulco, Red and White Stripes, Mexico, Vintage Glamour, Midcentury Photography, Vintage Resort...
Category
1970s American Realist Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Actor George Hamilton and model Alana Collins in Capri, Grand Hotel Quisisana.
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Actor George Hamilton and model Alana Collins in the fashion parade on Capri during a fashion festival at the Grand Hotel Quisisana.
Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 ...
Category
1960s American Realist Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Gwendolyn Brooks, Chicago Poet (Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Gwendolyn Brooks, Chicago Poet
1965
Chromogenic print
Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate.
1960: Poet Gwendolyn Brook...
Category
1960s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Rosemary And Khaled Said'
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Slim Aarons
Rosemary And Khaled Said
1982 (printed later)
C print
Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate.
Rosemary Saïd,...
Category
1980s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Capucine (Slim Aarons estate edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Capucine
1957
Fiber print
30 x 20 inches
Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate.
Slim Aarons (1916-2006) worked mainly f...
Category
1950s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
C Print
Slim Aarons, Apres Ski, Gstaad (Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Apres Ski
1963 (printed later)
Chromogenic Lambda Print
Estate edition of 150
A group of women reclining on the snow in Gstaad with rugs covering their knees, 1963.
Estate stamped ...
Category
1960s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Slim Aarons, Verbier Skier (Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Verbier Skier, 1964
Chromogenic Lambda Print
Estate edition of 150
A blonde skier on the slopes at Verbier, February 1964.
Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with cert...
Category
1960s Modern Slim Aarons Portrait Photography
Materials
Lambda
Slim Aarons portrait photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Slim Aarons portrait photography available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of portrait photography to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue, purple, pink and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Slim Aarons in digital print, lambda print, laser print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Slim Aarons portrait photography, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Mark Shaw, Bob Willoughby, and Mark Beard. Slim Aarons portrait photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $960 and tops out at $35,000, while the average work can sell for $3,000.