Slim Aarons: Women

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Aarons captured high-society women and their lavish lifestyles throughout his career, traveling to places like Las Vegas, Bermuda, and Acapulco, where they’d lounge poolside at resorts. He went to their extravagant Palm Beach homes, Spanish villas, and photographed one woman in a Czechoslovakian castle. After the war, SLIM INSISTED—in a phrase that became his leitmotif—he’d allow himself to photograph only “ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE who were doing ATTRACTIVE THINGS in ATTRACTIVE PLACES.”

Slim Aarons: Women Reveals Intimate Portraits of Jackie Slim Aarons: Women Reveals Intimate Portraits of Jackie

a b c d Martin, Douglas (June 1, 2006). "Slim Aarons, 89, Dies; Photographed Celebrities at Play". The New York Times. p.A23. The championship swimmer and movie star Esther Williams poolside in Florida, circa 1955. Williams was the darling of both the aquatic and the film worlds. Unable to compete in the 1940 Olympic Games because of the war, she joined Billy Rose’s Aquacade in San Francisco, where she swam with Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller—a five-time Olympic gold medallist himself – and caught the attention of MGM scouts. At the pinnacle of her movie career, from 1945 to 1949, the actress dubbed ‘the Million Dollar Mermaid’ had at least one film in the top 20 box office hits each year. Photograph: Slim Aarons/Getty. Caption: Laura Hawk After the war, Aarons moved to California and began photographing celebrities. In California, he shot his most praised photo, Kings of Hollywood, a 1957 New's Year's Eve photograph depicting Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, and James Stewart relaxing at a bar in full formal wear. Laure de La Haye‐Jousselin at the gates to her château in Normandy, 1957. Slim waited four days in the village of Saint‐Aubind’Écrosville to get this shot. Once the scene was set, he not only managed to get the subject to engage with the camera, but got her horse and two dogs to cooperate as well. As Slim’s longtime friend and editor Frank Zachary observed, ‘Slim managed to get the horse to raise his hoof. A real, honest‐to‐God 17th‐century portrait.’ Photograph: Slim Aarons/Getty. Caption: Laura HawkIn 2017, filmmaker Fritz Mitchell released a documentary about Aarons, called Slim Aarons: The High Life. [9] In the documentary it is revealed that Aarons was Jewish and grew up in conditions that were in complete contrast to what he told friends and family of his childhood. Aarons claimed that he was raised in New Hampshire, was an orphan, and had no living relations. After his death in 2006, his widow and daughter learned the truth that Aarons had grown up in a poor immigrant Yiddish-speaking family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. As a boy his mother was diagnosed with mental health issues and admitted to a psychiatric hospital, which caused him to be passed around among relatives. He resented and had no relationship with his father and had a brother, Harry, who would later commit suicide. Several documentary interviewees postulate that if Aarons's true origins had been known, his career would have been unlikely to succeed within the restricted world of celebrity and WASP privilege his photography glamorized. [ citation needed] Death [ edit ] Slim Aarons (born George Allen Aarons; October 29, 1916 – May 30, 2006) was an American photographer noted for his images of socialites, jet-setters and celebrities. His work principally appeared in Life, Town & Country, and Holiday magazines. [1] Early life [ edit ] Peretz, Evgenia (27 January 2014). "Inside the world of Slim Aarons". The Hive . Retrieved 2017-11-09. PARTY MIX | An outtake from Slim Aarons’s iconic shoot at the Kaufmann Desert House, designed by Richard Neutra, in Palm Springs, California, 1970. Photo: Slim Aarons Aarons, Slim; Sweet, Christopher (2012). Slim Aarons: La Dolce Vita (Getty Images). Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1419700606.

Slim Aarons, Women by Slim Aarons | 9781419722424 | Booktopia Slim Aarons, Women by Slim Aarons | 9781419722424 | Booktopia

Aarons, Slim (1974). A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life. Harper and Row. ISBN 978-0060100162. Walker, Tonya (2008). "Rich, Attractive People In Attractive Places Doing Attractive Things". Virginia Commonwealth University. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help) Hawk writes in her introduction, “Slim’s visual narratives give us an intime glimpse into the world of the upper classes and their rituals in the pursuit of leisure. That his half century of work continues to captivate successive generations of admirers—and that this is the fifth book published of his photography—reveals not only a yearning for an irretrievable time gone by but also a universal fascination with the seeming forbidden worlds of wealth and privilege.” Rathe, Adam (May 15, 2017). "An Exclusive Look at the New Slim Aarons Documentary". Town & Country. ISSN 0040-9952.

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Slim Aarons: Women explores the central subject of Slim Aarons’s career—the extraordinary women from the upper echelons of high society, the arts, fashion, and Hollywood. At 18 years old, Aarons enlisted in the United States Army, worked as a photographer at the United States Military Academy, and later served as a combat photographer in World War II and earned a Purple Heart. Aarons said combat had taught him the only beach worth landing on was "decorated with beautiful, seminude girls tanning in a tranquil sun." [1]