Sonic Editions

Slim Aarons, born George Allen Aarons, is something of a legend among photographers. Born to poor, Yiddish-speaking immigrants in Manhattan's Lower East Side, he suffered the loss of his father, who abandoned the family, and his mother, who was committed to a sanatorium, early in his life. He spent the remainder of his formative years living with various relations in New York and New Hampshire, even enduring a spell in an orphanage. It's no surprise he yearned for escape, and a few years later he found it in the Army.

As an enlisted man - Staff Sergeant George Aarons - he spent years documenting the brutality of the Second World War, in North Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He witnessed executions, bombings, battles and refugees, capturing them on film for the military magazine Yank. In a way the War was Aaron's education and provided him with a chance to make something of himself. As his daughter Mary said,

“He saw the pain and ravages of war. But he also saw Paris and Rome and London. The war gave him opportunities that weren’t otherwise available.”

When he returned to the States, he vowed he'd never again turn his lens on suffering. His new goal, in his own words, was to photograph "attractive people who were doing attractive things in attractive places." With an almost superhuman talent for meeting and befriending the jet set, Slim embarked on a decades-long career shooting the best and brightest in the richest and most rarified locations across the world, in California, the Alps, and the Med, to name just a few choice spots.

 

Skiing in Colorado, 1968

With his winning smile and carefree charm, he befriended luminaries like Gary Cooper, Clark Gable and Alfred Hitchcock. The socialite and actress Jane Howard, herself a photographer, became something of a mentor to Slim, and his work, richly coloured and composed with a wonderful sprezzatura, continued to find him new, ever more glamorous friends: heads of studios, Vanderbilts, European nobility, all came under Aaron's lens.

Marisa Berenson, Capri, 1968

In the '90s, Aaron's work was more popular than ever. Tastemakers around the world pored over his work for inspiration, and copies of his books became collector's items worth thousands of dollars. One day, the billionaire Mark Getty arrived at the Aarons home and offered to buy Slim's entire collection. He agreed, and got something like a million dollars in return. Aarons died in 2006, at the age of 89, leaving behind him a family, a fortune, and a photographic legacy that has rarely, if ever, been equalled.

Poolside Glamour, Kaufmann Desert House, 1970

At Sonic Editions, we're proud to present a curated collection of Slim Aarons prints. Printed on archival paper and certified by his estate, each print is a piece of history, capturing the world's celebrities at play, the glitz of a time that has passed us by, and the story of a man who refused to accept the cards life had dealt him. A man who made his own luck, and whose work will continue to inspire for many years to come.