The Beautiful World of Photographer Slim Aarons
Emerging from World War II a combat photographer who had witnessed his share of horror, George Allen "Slim" Aarons (1916-2006) determined he would photograph only “attractive people in attractive places doing attractive things.”
And so he did. While working for Life, Town & Country and Holiday magazines, Aarons photographed a veritable who’s who of high society: Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier in Monaco; Bing Crosby at Pebble Beach; and John Huston at his hideaway in Puerto Vallarta.
Mrs. F.C. Winston Guest and Son, Villa Artemis, Palm Beach, 1955.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
“I’d wandered through enough concentration camps and bombed-out villages," Aarons said. "I’d slept in the mud and been shot at. I owed myself some easy, luxurious living. I wanted to be on the sunny side of the street.”
Slim Aarons riding his bike on the sunny side of the pier.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
Aarons received the Purple Heart after being injured in Italy. “I gave it to a blonde I knew after the war. She said she liked the color,” he told Vanity Fair in 2003. After the war, he began shooting for Life. When the magazine wanted him to shoot the Korean War, he declined, saying, “I’ll only do a beach if it has a blonde on it.”
Aarons captured glamorous jet-setters living fabulous lives post-World War II. Here, "Tennis in the Bahamas," from 1956.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
True to his word, Aarons roamed the world for more than forty years photographing everything that was cool and chic about old money with his trusty Leica camera. About the wealthy, he once joked, “Even their vegetables are better.”
His most famous photograph, Poolside Gossip (1970), captured the good life found in legendary architect Richard Neutra’s iconic Palm Springs, California, designed home known as the Kaufmann Desert House.
"Poolside Gossip" (1970), captures the idealized good life lived in the very mod Palm Springs, California.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
Aarons work may be the polar opposite of Ansel Adams', but in the world of style photography, Aarons’ images of elegant design, masterful composition and haute couture, always captured in lurid, saturated colors, have been wildly influential, inspiring everyone from fashion designers Michael Kors and Anna Sui to musician Lenny Kravitz.
Aaron's most celebrated photograph: "Kings of Hollywood," a 1957 New's Year's Eve photograph showing (from left) Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper and James Stewart relaxing in the Crown Room at Romanoff’s restaurant in Hollywood.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
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