Chronicling the Good Life

A Wonderful LifeGeorge Allen Aarons, better known as Slim Aarons, could be regarded as one of the earliest paparazzi photographers as he enjoyed capturing various celebrities, socialites, and jet setters about town.

 

Aarons was born in New York on October 29, 1916 and showed an interest in photography from an early age.  Even as a teenager,  he knew how to use a camera very well, and by the time he was 18, he was working as a photographer in the U.S. Army, at West Point. As the years went by and the conflicts grew,Aarons found himself working as a combat photographer during World War II and earned a Purple Heart for his actions.

 

Perhaps as a desire to move away from the violent scenes he capture on the battle fields,  after the war ended Aarons went from photographing the harsh brutality of the world to taking shots of the beautiful and famous in California and elsewhere around the world, chronicling the good life.  His work is iconic, and the visual embodiment of our modern day conception of the hey day of 50's Hollywood. 

 

Kings of HollywoodIt was in Beverly Hills, that Aarons took one of his most famous photos, called Kings of Hollywood . It was taken on New Year's Eve in 1957 and featured the popular actors Van Heflin, Clark Gable, James Stewart and Gary Cooper, all relaxing at a bar, drinks and smokes in hand in full formal dress.

 

Aaron became adept at taking photos of the rich and famous, and his work was regularly featured in well-known American magazines such as Life, Town & Country, Vogue, Life and Travel, Leisure, and Holiday. His photos were often used as the cover shots and this too helped to solidify his images of the American dream influencing our ideal of a time when glamour and elegance still seemed to go hand in hand with wealth and fame.

 

He captured the 10th Duke of Marlborough and his wife Mary on a garden bench, Man Ray in his Paris studio, Joan Collins cuddling bed with her pink poodle and Mick Jagger and MarianneFaithfull relaxing at an Irish mansion.

 

Being a photographer was a hard life.While his subjects were often some of the most famous and beautiful people in the western world, Aarons preferred the natural look and didn’t like to use a stylist or makeup artist before a photo session.  It was this candour that made his images so popular and memorable. Yet his photographs were never unkind to the subject, and he had no underlying motive to strip away a celebrity's veneer of beauty.

 

Aarons said his photography career basically consisted of, "photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places."

 

He was popular with the Hollywood elite and made friends with many of his subjects, joining in on the social activities of the good life right up until his death in 2006, at 89 years old.