Staley-Wise presents an exhibition of rare signed Slim Aarons photographs, many never seen before with detailed captions pinpointing subject, time, and place.

Slim Aarons (1916-2006) made a career, in his words, “photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” His subjects were the beautiful and the celebrated, the rich and the powerful, high society and aristocracy. Slim Aarons captured their image for the picture magazines – Life, Holiday, Town & Country – throughout the second half of the twentieth century. In doing so he defined the image of the Beautiful People, the international Jet Set who strode the world’s stage in the postwar decades like young gods.

From Dali to Queen Elizabeth, JFK, Mick Jagger, Truman Capote, and Ted Williams, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the world of the Beautiful People at play, on holiday, in glamorous locales, taking the sun, shedding their clothes, letting their hair down. From Palm Beach to Palm Springs, from Mustique to Monaco, from Aspen to Gstaad, Slim Aarons takes us on a journey to the most exclusive playgrounds of the rich. A place in the sun is that special place of privilege under a bright and beaming sky, whether on a sandy shore or snowy slope, where all the cares of the world are forgotten, and it is time to relax and have fun.

Developing the environmental portrait to an art, Slim Aarons engaged in both formal portraiture and reportage, and he always remained true to his subjects. He showed them as they saw themselves. In so doing he gained their trust and that most precious thing: access. And so he was welcomed into the exclusive precincts of the beau monde, in essence attaining the status of court photographer. The images included here, recording the glittering class on vacation, are among the choicest fruits of that access. And so we see starlets and princess, moguls and mavens, aristocrats and arrivistes.

Staley Wise Gallery

560 Broadway
New York (NY) 10012 United States
Tel. +1 (212) 9666223
photo@staleywise.com
www.staleywise.com

Opening hours

Tuesday - Saturday
From 11am to 5pm

Related images
  1. Slim Aarons, Britt Ekland, 1969
  2. Slim Aarons, The Good Life, 1955: C.Z. Guest and her son Alexander and dog at the pool at their home Villa Artemis in Palm Beach
  3. Slim Aarons, Cosmetics Princess, Helena Rubenstein and Prince Archil Gourielli, New York, 1950
  4. Slim Aarons, Gloria Swanson awaiting the results of the Academy Award for Best Actress at a cafe on West 52nd Street, New York, April 2, 1951
  5. Slim Aarons, Sea Drive, 1967: Film producer Kevin McClory takes his wife Bobo Segrist and their family for a drive in an “Amphicar” across the harbour at Nassau
  6. Slim Aarons, Kings of Hollywood: Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, and James Stewart at Romanoff’s in Beverly Hills, 1957