Realist art attempts to portray its subject matter without artifice. Similar to naturalism, authentic realist paintings and prints see an integration of true-to-life colors, meticulous detail and linear perspectives for accurate portrayals of the world.
Work that involves illusionistic techniques of realism dates back to the classical world, such as the deceptive trompe l’oeil used since ancient Greece. Art like this became especially popular in the 17th century when Dutch artists like Evert Collier painted objects that appeared real enough to touch. Realism as an artistic movement, however, usually refers to 19th-century French realist artists such as Honoré Daumier exploring social and political issues in biting lithographic prints, while the likes of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet painting people — particularly the working class — with all their imperfections, navigating everyday urban life. This was a response to the dominant academic art tradition that favored grand paintings of myth and history.
By the turn of the 20th century, European artists, such as the Pre-Raphaelites, were experimenting with nearly photographic realism in their work, as seen in the attention to every botanical attribute of the flowers surrounding the drowned Ophelia painted by English artist John Everett Millais.
Although abstraction was the guiding style of 20th-century art, the realism trend in American modern art endured in Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and other artists’ depictions of the complexities of the human experience. In the late 1960s, Photorealism emerged with artists like Chuck Close and Richard Estes giving their paintings the precision of a frame of film.
Contemporary artists such as Jordan Casteel, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Aliza Nisenbaum are now using the unvarnished realist approach for honest representations of people and their worlds. Alongside traditional mediums, technology such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations are helping artists create new sensations of realism in art.
Find authentic realist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.
Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests standing by a white Rolls-Royce convertible courtesy car at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, ...
Lambda
Private Island, Philippines, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests relaxing on the beach of a private island owned by Philippine Airlines President, Benigno T...
Lambda
$5,400
Monte Carlo, Monaco, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a man and a woman on jet skis off the coast of Monte Carlo, Monaco. This is an estate-stamped and hand...
Lambda
$1,800
Monte Carlo, Monaco, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a man and a woman on jet skis off the coast of Monte Carlo, Monaco. This is an estate-stamped and hand...
Lambda
Alfresco Dining, Antibes, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests dining at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera, August. This is an estat...
Lambda
$5,400
Saint-Tropez, France, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features holidaymakers lounging on the deck of their luxury yacht in Saint-Tropez, France. This is an estate-...
Lambda
Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests around the swimming pool at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, in Antibes on the French Riviera. This ...
Lambda
Portofino, Estate Edition
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Yachts moored in the Italian fishing village of Portofino, circa 1955. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Esta...
Lambda
Street view of Corleone from the series "Poverty Has Chased the Mafia Away"
Located in Middletown, NY
Vintage gelatin silver print. Image dimensions 7 1/4 x 9 3/8 in. (180 x 238 mm), printed to edge. Photographer's copyright stamp and credit sticker on verso, with penciled negative n...
Photographic Paper
Town view of Corleone from the series "Poverty Has Chased the Mafia Away"
Located in Middletown, NY
Vintage gelatin silver print. Image dimensions 7 1/4 x 9 3/8 in. (180 x 238 mm), printed to edge. Photographer's copyright stamp and credit sticker on verso, with typewritten title: ...
Photographic Paper
$2,400
Lunch At Bali-li, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Mr. and Mrs. Amos Morrill together with Mrs. Ogden P. Starr having lunch at 'Bali-li' at the Mill Reef C...
Lambda
The Family Ford, Michigan, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Mrs. Thomas Bancroft Jnr (Peggy Bancroft) in the foyer of her Manhattan duplex. This is an estate-s...
Lambda
$1,800
Tullio Abbate, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Tullio Abbate of Abbate Boats at the back of a yacht moored at a property on the shores of Lake Como,...
Lambda
$5,400
California Fashion, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Mrs. Anne Ryan (nee Evenson) wearing a sleeveless, two-piece outfit by Maurice Rentner, outside the Bota...
Lambda
Pierro and Ludovico Antinori, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Pierro Antinori and Ludovico Antinori posing by a well, on which rests a bottle of white wine and two g...
Lambda
Beach Backgammon, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people playing backgammon on the beach at the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, Italy This is an es...
Lambda
Poolside Loungers, California, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features former fashion model Helen Dzo Dzo Kaptur (in white lace), Nelda Linsk (in yellow), wife of art de...
Lambda
$1,800
Private Island, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests relaxing on the beach of a private island owned by Philippine Airlines President, Benigno T...
Lambda
$252Sale Price|20% Off
Contemporary Minimalist Still life Photo "Espresso, biscuit.Whst else ? "
Located in VÉNISSIEUX, FR
This contemporary, evocative fine art photograph, titled "Espresso, Biscuit. What Else?", was captured by French artist and photographer Natalya Mougenot as part of her ongoing serie...
Photographic Paper
Self Portrait on Holiday in Athens, Greece (Slim Aarons Estate Edition)
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Legendary photographer Slim Aarons relaxes in a self portrait shot in Athens, near the Acropolis. Slim Aarons said, "I love a solo holiday. It tends to refresh the part of oneself that is most depleted by modern life — patience. "Let me dispel a few myths. You will be lonely. No: you won’t. My solo travels in Paris have brought many perfect hours of being alone but not a moment of loneliness. People who depend on other people are often in hiding from themselves. Two and a quarter million people live in the City of Light: you will see many of them and you will pass them in the street, but when you see Notre Dame after dark and walk home and perhaps stop to have a drink in the Marais, you can feel that the only thing that is missing from your experience is the common dependency on someone to distract your attention. "I’ve had solo pints of Guinness in the pubs of County Kerry and County Cork. I’ve walked across the sage- and juniper-scented maquis of Corsica on a spring day, where you can still find the world of Napoleon’s childhood. More than once I went to the Isle of Iona in the Scottish Hebrides...
Lambda
Villa Nirvana, Acapulco, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests at the Villa Nirvana, owned by Oscar Obregon, in Las Brisas, Acapulco, Mexico. This is an ...
C Print
Half Dome in Yosemite - Black & White Landscape Photograph
By Jeff Nixon
Located in Soquel, CA
Half Dome in Yosemite - Black & White Landscape Photograph Beautiful black and white landscape photograph showing the backside of Half Dome by Jeff Nixon (American, 20th Century...
Paper, Silver Gelatin
Portrait
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Portrait, ca. 1975. Period print measuring 8.75 x 11.25 inches. Unframed. Studio stamp on verso. Mounting and framing services available. Victor Arimondi (November 8, 1942 – July 24, 2001) was an Italian American photographer and model who lived and worked in Europe before moving to the United States in the late 1970s. His early fashion photography, his portraits of Grace Jones and other artists, and his male nudes photographed in New York and San Francisco captured the pre-AIDS culture of the 1970s and early 1980s. Arimondi's nudes were collected in several books, including David Leddick's award-winning[1] The Male Nude, (New York: Taschen 1998, 2005 and 2015). The photographer's later work documented homeless individuals in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood and the toll of the AIDS epidemic on the city. His photographs, featured in several posthumous exhibitions, also are in the collections of Sweden's museum of modern art, Moderna Museet, and San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society. Biography Arimondi was born Vittorio Maria Tevitti to his unwed mother, Alessandra Calligaris, in Bologna, Italy on November 8, 1942. His mother struggled financially, which left an impression on her only child. In 1948, she temporarily left him at a children's boarding school and orphanage in Italy to move to Sweden for a job. There she met and married Bruno Arimondi, who adopted her son. The family returned to Naples, Italy in 1952 where Victor graduated from high school.[1] In 1960, Arimondi returned to Sweden to study at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, although he did not graduate. Meanwhile, he worked at several blue collar jobs, including as a mailman, before he gave up on traditional full-time work to pursue what he considered more essential— a life of creative expression. He created costume-like clothing for himself and friends and at age 19 became a fashion model. Even as a teenager, the Italian born photographer who spent his 20s and 30s primarily based in Sweden, noted that he preferred fantasy to the trials of real life.[1] That conflict, and his passion for beauty as well as his sexual energy, were major factors in his life and his work.[2] From 1965 through 1972 Arimondi worked as model in London, Milan, Germany, New York and Stockholm, appearing in catalogs and fashion magazines including Vogue , Harper's Bazaar and Esquire and on the runway in several Valentino fashion shows. In 1972 he decided to try working on the other side of the lens as a photographer to better express his creativity.[2] Arimondi moved to New York in 1979 and continued to build his photography portfolio. Portrait of Bearded Man, New York City, 1979 Two years later, in 1981, he moved to San Francisco where he lived and worked for twenty years until his death of AIDS at age 58 on July 24, 2001. The year he moved to San Francisco, Arimondi opened a photo gallery in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood for a short time. When he struggled financially, he gave up on trying to earn a living through commercial fashion photography and closed the gallery.[3] Arimondi returned to modeling for the financial benefits, though he did so on less of an international scale than in his early years. He continued to create photographic portraits of the denizens of the San Francisco gay and arts cultures, to shoot male nudes and publish his work in magazines, and he began to compose and photograph evocative still lifes using his own photographic images. Many of them touched on the death of dozens of his former photography models from AIDS. Arimondi was in the midst of a new photography project that brought together his background as a fashion photographer and his more recent social documentary work when he died several months after he learned he was HIV-positive.[4] The project featured his former colleague, haute couture cover model Ivy Nicholson,[5] who he found living homeless in San Francisco. Several of the haunting portraits he took of her were later included in a noted group exhibit at SF Camerawork. Art Arimondi's early photography in the 1970s in Stockholm included portraits of the stars of Sweden's fashion, theater and dance worlds. His first two photography exhibits were in Stockholm and met with mixed reviews. But as he matured as a photographer and tapped into his fashion world contacts, Arimondi landed a number of commercial fashion jobs, including shooting for the Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A.'s I.Magnin department store ad that ran in Vogue. Marlboro Man Nude, New York City,1980. He also shot other artists and models for his own portfolio, including Grace Jones, the Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann, and the American writer, Norman Mailer. Arimondi's aesthetic vision was focused on fantasy and drama, and he prided himself on pushing limits.[6] Although less well-known than his San Francisco contemporary...
Photographic Paper
The Costa-Delords, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Delfina Costa-Delord and Alessia Costa-Delord posing for a portrait, each wearing a hat, in Asolo, Ita...
Lambda
Dining Al Fresco On Capri, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Italian artist and actress Domiziana Giordano, Italian author Francesca Sanvitale (1928 - 2011), Dino...
Lambda
The Costa-Delords, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Delfina Costa-Delord and Alessia Costa-Delord posing for a portrait, each wearing a hat, in Asolo, Ita...
Lambda
Dining Al Fresco On Capri, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Italian artist and actress Domiziana Giordano, Italian author Francesca Sanvitale (1928 - 2011), Dino...
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989. A ma...
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989. A ma...
Lambda
Princess Colonna, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photogra
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Princess Colonna, posing wearing a Panama-style hat with a blue, white and green blouse, on the island...
Lambda
Motorboats In Antibes, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features motorboats moored on the coast near the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera. Th...
Lambda
Carlton Hotel, France, Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an entrance to the Carlton Hotel, Cannes, France. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered editio...
Lambda
Carlton Hotel, France, Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an entrance to the Carlton Hotel, Cannes, France. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered editio...
Lambda
Carlton Hotel, France, Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an entrance to the Carlton Hotel, Cannes, France. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered editio...
Lambda
Ricardo Bolliger, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Ricardo Bolliger sitting beside a swimming pool on the island of Capri, Italy, in September 1989. A ma...
Lambda
$2,400
Dal Lake, India, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Dal Lake in Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir, India. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered editi...
Lambda
$3,000
Dal Lake, India, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Dal Lake in Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir, India. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered editi...
Lambda
$3,600
Dal Lake, India, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Dal Lake in Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir, India. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered editi...
Lambda
$4,200
Dal Lake, India, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Dal Lake in Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir, India. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered editi...
Lambda
$5,400
Dal Lake, India, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Dal Lake in Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir, India. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered editi...
Lambda
Palm Beach Party, Florida, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a pool party in Palm Beach, Florida, USA. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 w...
Lambda
Palm Beach Party, Florida, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a pool party in Palm Beach, Florida, USA. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered edition of 150 w...
Lambda
Sweet Pea & Pincushion
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Walter W. Nelson – American (1942- ) Title: Sweet Pea & Pincushion. From the Fleur portfolio Year: 1983 Medium: Dye transfer photograph Sight size: 16.25 x 11 inches. Sheet size: 21.25 x 16.5 inches Matted size: 26.75 x 21.25 inches Edition Size: 25. This one: 8/25 Signature: Reverse Condition: Very good Unframed In the 1980s, Walter Nelson...
Dye Transfer
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features an aerial view of the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera. This is an estate-sta...
Lambda
Beach Backgammon, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people playing backgammon on the beach at the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, Italy This is an es...
Lambda
$2,400
Bahamas Speed Week, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people attending the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered ed...
Lambda
Japan – Tokyo, The Yoshiwara Prostitute Houses
Located in Middletown, NY
Original Photograph / Photographer unattributed Yokohama, Japan: c 1890. Hand-tinted albumen print, 8 x 10 1/2 (204 x 266 mm), uncaptioned, some cockling at top corners; pencil ins...
Watercolor, Photographic Paper
Peter Viertel, Biarritz, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This 1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features author and screenwriter Peter Viertel (1920 - 2007) with his surfboard on the beach at Biarritz, France. T...
Lambda
Harriet De Rosiere, France, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Viscountess Harriet de Rosiere at Mougins, near Cannes in France. This is an estate-stamped and hand-n...
Lambda
$1,800
Bahamas Speed Week, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people attending the Bahamas Speed Week in Nassau. This is an estate-stamped and hand-numbered ed...
Lambda
Harriet De Rosiere, France, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Viscountess Harriet de Rosiere at Mougins, near Cannes in France. This is an estate-stamped and hand-n...
Lambda
Boats At Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features motorboats moored off the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera. This is an estate-s...
Lambda
Hotel Punta Tragara, Italy, Estate Edition Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features the Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri, Italy. This is an estate stamped and...
Lambda
$5,400
Beach Hut In Antibes, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features guests at a beach hut at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera. This is an estat...
Lambda
Boats At Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1960s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features motorboats moored off the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera. This is an estate-s...
Lambda
Beach Backgammon, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late-1950s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features people playing backgammon on the beach at the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, Italy This is an es...
Lambda
Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1970s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, captures an aerial view of the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes on the French Riviera. This is an estate-stampe...
Lambda
Lehman Family in Casa De Campo, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1990s photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features American educator and philanthropist Orin Lehman (1920 - 2008) with his wife, Wendy Vanderbilt Leh...
Lambda
$600Sale Price|25% Off
Portrait
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait, ca. 1975. Period print measures 11 x 14 inches. Artist studio stamp on verso. Victor Arimondi (November 8, 1942 – July 24, 2001) was an Italian American photographer and model who lived and worked in Europe before moving to the United States in the late 1970s. His early fashion photography, his portraits of Grace Jones and other artists, and his male nudes photographed in New York and San Francisco captured the pre-AIDS culture of the 1970s and early 1980s. Arimondi's nudes were collected in several books, including David Leddick's award-winning[1] The Male Nude, (New York: Taschen 1998, 2005 and 2015). The photographer's later work documented homeless individuals in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood and the toll of the AIDS epidemic on the city. His photographs, featured in several posthumous exhibitions, also are in the collections of Sweden's museum of modern art, Moderna Museet, and San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society. Biography Arimondi was born Vittorio Maria Tevitti to his unwed mother, Alessandra Calligaris, in Bologna, Italy on November 8, 1942. His mother struggled financially, which left an impression on her only child. In 1948, she temporarily left him at a children's boarding school and orphanage in Italy to move to Sweden for a job. There she met and married Bruno Arimondi, who adopted her son. The family returned to Naples, Italy in 1952 where Victor graduated from high school.[1] In 1960, Arimondi returned to Sweden to study at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, although he did not graduate. Meanwhile, he worked at several blue collar jobs, including as a mailman, before he gave up on traditional full-time work to pursue what he considered more essential— a life of creative expression. He created costume-like clothing for himself and friends and at age 19 became a fashion model. Even as a teenager, the Italian born photographer who spent his 20s and 30s primarily based in Sweden, noted that he preferred fantasy to the trials of real life.[1] That conflict, and his passion for beauty as well as his sexual energy, were major factors in his life and his work.[2] From 1965 through 1972 Arimondi worked as model in London, Milan, Germany, New York and Stockholm, appearing in catalogs and fashion magazines including Vogue , Harper's Bazaar and Esquire and on the runway in several Valentino fashion shows. In 1972 he decided to try working on the other side of the lens as a photographer to better express his creativity.[2] Arimondi moved to New York in 1979 and continued to build his photography portfolio. Portrait of Bearded Man, New York City, 1979 Two years later, in 1981, he moved to San Francisco where he lived and worked for twenty years until his death of AIDS at age 58 on July 24, 2001. The year he moved to San Francisco, Arimondi opened a photo gallery in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood for a short time. When he struggled financially, he gave up on trying to earn a living through commercial fashion photography and closed the gallery.[3] Arimondi returned to modeling for the financial benefits, though he did so on less of an international scale than in his early years. He continued to create photographic portraits of the denizens of the San Francisco gay and arts cultures, to shoot male nudes and publish his work in magazines, and he began to compose and photograph evocative still lifes using his own photographic images. Many of them touched on the death of dozens of his former photography models from AIDS. Arimondi was in the midst of a new photography project that brought together his background as a fashion photographer and his more recent social documentary work when he died several months after he learned he was HIV-positive.[4] The project featured his former colleague, haute couture cover model Ivy Nicholson,[5] who he found living homeless in San Francisco. Several of the haunting portraits he took of her were later included in a noted group exhibit at SF Camerawork. Art Arimondi's early photography in the 1970s in Stockholm included portraits of the stars of Sweden's fashion, theater and dance worlds. His first two photography exhibits were in Stockholm and met with mixed reviews. But as he matured as a photographer and tapped into his fashion world contacts, Arimondi landed a number of commercial fashion jobs, including shooting for the Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A.'s I.Magnin department store ad that ran in Vogue. Marlboro Man Nude, New York City,1980. He also shot other artists and models for his own portfolio, including Grace Jones, the Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann, and the American writer, Norman Mailer. Arimondi's aesthetic vision was focused on fantasy and drama, and he prided himself on pushing limits.[6] Although less well-known than his San Francisco contemporary...
Photographic Paper
$3,000
Tullio Abbate, Italy, Estate Edition, Mid-Century Modern Photograph
By Slim Aarons
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early-1980s photograph, taken by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Tullio Abbate of Abbate Boats at the back of a yacht moored at a property on the shores of Lake Como,...
Lambda