1972
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.
Underwater Drink (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Slim Aarons Underwater Drink, 1972 Chromogenic lambda print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. A woman drinking from a...
Lambda
Slim Aarons 'Underwater Drink' (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Slim Aarons Underwater Drink 1972 (printed later) C print Estate stamped and numbered edition of 150 with Certificate of authenticity A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in...
C Print
Underwater Drink (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of a...
Lambda, C Print
Underwater Drink (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of a...
C Print, Lambda
Underwater Drink (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of a...
C Print, Lambda
Underwater Drink (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of a...
C Print, Lambda
Underwater Drink - Slim Aarons Estate Stamped
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Underwater Drink 1972 - Slim Aarons Estate Stamped A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. 48 x 78" inches / ...
Archival Pigment
Slim Aarons Official Estate Print - Pool At Las Brisas
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Pool At Las Brisas Guests in the pool at the Las Brisas Hotel, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. 40 x 60" inches / 101 x 152 cm paper size Estate Stamped Collection Edition to 1...
Archival Pigment
'Swimmers At Las Brisas' 1972 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
'Swimmers At Las Brisas' 1972 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition Print Guests in the pool at the Las Brisas Hotel, Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Produced from the original tran...
C Print, Color
Pool at Las Brisas, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
An underwater view of the pool at the Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. A woman drinking from a coconut underwater in the pool at Las Brisas Hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, February 1972. Slim Aarons Underwater Drink Acapulco Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate Collector will receive the next number in the edition Modern printing from original transparency C-type print on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, Crisp detail, continuous tone and brilliant color Paper weight 210gms Matte Satin Surface Complimentary dealer shipping to your framer, worldwide. 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. 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). * Undercurrent Projects, New York, is proud to represent Aarons' full collection of negatives and transparencies. Housed at Getty Images Hulton Archive in London, 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. #slimaarons #acapulco. Vintage scene...
Lambda
Swimming In The Bahamas Slim Aarons Estate Stamped Print
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Swimming In The Bahamas 1959 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition Brightly coloured swimmers in a pool in Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, 1959...
Archival Pigment
Swimming In The Bahamas Slim Aarons Estate Stamped Print
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Swimming In The Bahamas 1959 by Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition Brightly coloured swimmers in a pool in Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, 1959....
Archival Pigment
