Slim AaronsJoan Collins Relaxes (Aarons Estate Edition)1955
1955
About the Item
- Creator:Slim Aarons (1916-2006, American)
- Creation Year:1955
- Dimensions:Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU3264387992
Slim Aarons
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, he opened a bureau for Life magazine in Rome, where he took pictures capturing the postwar scene. Aarons 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, he 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 Aarons 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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
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1960s Realist Portrait Photography
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- Slim Aarons 'Beauty and the Beast'By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYLady Daphne Cameron (Mrs George Cameron) on a tiger skin rug in the trophy room at socialite Laddie Sanford's home in Palm Beach, Florida. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition o...Category
1950s Realist Portrait Photography
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1950s Realist Portrait Photography
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- Slim Aarons 'Beauty and the Beast'By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYLady Daphne Cameron (Mrs George Cameron) on a tiger skin rug in the trophy room at socialite Laddie Sanford's home in Palm Beach, Florida. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition o...Category
1950s Realist Portrait Photography
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- Slim Aarons 'Joan Collins Relaxes'By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NYFilm star Joan Collins relaxes with her pink poodle on her pink bed. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity fro...Category
1950s Realist Color Photography
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- Julie London (Aarons Estate Print)By Slim AaronsLocated in New York, NY1957: Singer Julie London enjoying breakfast in bed at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authe...Category
1950s Realist Color Photography
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- Waiting in the Shade, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAA woman shelters under a parasol on a beach on the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia, 1967. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim...Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
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- Olimpia Hruska, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CASwedish model Olimpia Hruska, wearing a bikini, poses against a rock on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, Italy, 1964. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity include...Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
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- Curling at St. Moritz, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CACurlers on a rink, or curling sheet, in St Moritz, Switzerland, March 1963. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons...Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
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- Britt Ekland, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CA1969, Swedish actress Britt Ekland in Porto Ercole, Italy. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the ...Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
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- Portofino Harbour, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe harbour in the Ligurian town of Portofino, August 1977. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate Collecto...Category
1970s Realist Portrait Photography
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- Twice Blessed, Estate EditionBy Slim AaronsLocated in Los Angeles, CA1960: Framed in a rustic window, member of the so called 'black aristocracy' who trace their ancestry back to the papal courts, Princess Laudomia Hercolani, wife of Prince Hercolani and daughter of Prince and Princess del Drago...Category
1960s Realist Portrait Photography
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