1968 (Printed later)
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.
Slim Aarons Official Estate Print - Snowmass Gathering
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Snowmass Gathering Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a party in Snowmass Village, in Pitkin County, Colorado, in A...
Archival Pigment
Slim Aarons Official Estate Print - Snowmass Gathering
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Snowmass Gathering Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a party in Snowmass Village, in Pitkin County, Colorado, in A...
Archival Pigment
Slim Aarons Offcial Estate Print - Snowmass Gathering 1968
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Snowmass Gathering Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a party in Snowmass Village, in Pitkin County, Colorado, in A...
Archival Pigment
Slim Aarons Estate Print - Snowmass Gathering 1968
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Snowmass Gathering Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a party in Snowmass Village, in Pitkin County, Colorado, in A...
Archival Pigment
Snowmass Gathering 1968 Slim Aarons Estate Stamped Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Snowmass Gathering, 1968 20x24” / 51 x 60 cm - paper size Estate Stamped Collection Edition to 150 Photo by Slim Aarons Printed in 2025 Limited to 150 prints only (regardless...
Archival Pigment
Snowmass Gathering 1968 - Slim Aarons Estate Stamped
By Slim Aarons
Located in London, GB
Poolside Gathering 1970 - Slim Aarons Estate Stamped Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a party in Snowmass Village...
Archival Pigment
Snowmass Gathering, 1968 - Limited Edition Estate Stamped C-Type
By Slim Aarons
Located in Brighton, GB
Snowmass Gathering, 1968 by Slim Aarons 16" x 20" print. Limited Edition Estate Stamped Print. Edition of 150. Printed Later. 'Snowmass Gathering, 1968' is a Limited Edition Estate...
C Print, Photographic Paper, Color, Digital
Snowmass Gathering, 1968, Midcentury Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a party in Snowmass Village, in Pitkin County, Colorado, in April 1968. Slim Aar...
C Print
Snowmass Gathering, 1968, Aarons, Midcentury Modern Photography
By Slim Aarons
Located in New York, NY
Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a party in Snowmass Village, in Pitkin County, Colorado, in April 1968. Slim Aar...
C Print
Snowmass Gathering, Colorado, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people attending a party in Snowmass Village, in Pitkin County, Colorado, in April 1968. Slim Aarons Snowmass Gathering Lambda Print 6 sizes available Slim Aarons Estate Edition Printed Later Collector gets next number in the edition 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 print. They have chosen Lambda prints for their sharpness, clarity, colour saturation and quality, compared to archival inkjet prints. Lambda printing gives a true continuous tone. Photograph is unframed. Slideshow includes a close-up of the Slim Aarons estate's stamp. Collector will get the next number in the edition. Slim Aarons 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...
Lambda
Snowmass Gathering, Colorado, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people...
Lambda
Snowmass Gathering, Colorado, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features two women, wearing brightly-coloured skiwear, stand in the foreground of a group of people...
Lambda
