Like its predecessors, Once Upon a Time and A Place in the Sun , Poolside with Slim Aarons offers images of jet-setters and the wealthy, of beautiful, glittering people living the glamorous life. Yet this new collection of stunning photographs of the rich and well-connected “doing attractive things” in their favorite playgrounds has a new twist. 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. It’s not the wealth that interests me specifically, it’s the carefree attitude that comes with it, and how Slim Aarons has managed to translate it – positively. There’s no denying his most iconic photos are of attractive people, doing attractive things, in attractive places – but I think for fans of his work today, there’s such a fascination with this period of distinct class, carefree love and expenditure that drives so much interest. 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] Aarons, Slim (1974). A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life. Harper and Row. ISBN 978-0060100162.In 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 ] Aarons was born to Yiddish-speaking immigrants who had lived in a tenement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. His father, Charlie Aarons (born Susman Aronowicz), distanced himself from the family; his mother, Stella Karvetzky, was sent to a sanitarium. Not knowing what had become of his parents, Aarons spent his boyhood at varying times with an aunt, at an orphanage, and with his grandmother and cousins in New Hampshire. [2] Photography career [ edit ] 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.

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.” After my conversation with Slim’s daughter, who tells me she’s just hours into her Christmas holiday which she will spend cozy at home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, surrounded by snow and a fire, she speaks with her mother for more details about her photogenic but unpleasant Christmas swim. Her memories play out like a sepia-tinged highlights reel of Hollywood’s golden age.

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Aarons, Slim; Sweet, Christopher (2005). Slim Aarons: A Place in the Sun. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0810959354.